Mumbai, April 23, 2026, 13:07 IST
Indian stocks slipped further Thursday. By 1:02 p.m. IST, the Nifty 50 sat at 24,207.25, while the BSE Sensex registered 77,799.23. Oil prices stubbornly held above $100 a barrel, and HSBC’s downgrade of Indian equities to “underweight” added pressure. Both indices shed nearly 1% on Wednesday. Google
Crude took center stage, but nerves were on edge well before that. HCLTech’s dimmer full-year growth view sent tech shares sliding Wednesday. “Weaker commentary on demand and near-term growth visibility” is muddying the sector’s profit outlook, according to Bajaj Broking’s Shashwat Singh. Reuters
India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer, feels shifts in crude fast. HSBC just put out an underweight on the country—less than the benchmark—warning that rising energy costs may throw off the rebound in earnings.
Still, pressure persisted, despite a lift from India’s own numbers. The country’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI—a business activity survey with readings over 50 signaling expansion—climbed to 58.3 in April, up from 57.0 in March. Both manufacturing and services showed gains.
The focus is shifting abroad. On Thursday, the rupee dropped beyond 94 per dollar—a three-week low—stoking concerns that rising oil prices could push up import bills and leave inflation stubbornly high.
VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, flagged “increasing risk to global growth in general and higher risk to India’s macros in particular,” after Brent bounced back up to $103. Reuters
Early action saw financials and autos under pressure—ICICI Bank slipped 1.6% and HDFC Bank traded down 0.8%. The Nifty Auto index gave up 1.3%. Pharma stocks, on the other hand, climbed 2.3% after Nomura pointed to a 10.1% year-on-year jump in the domestic drug market for March.
Foreign investors pulled $4.3 billion from Indian equities in April, bringing outflows for 2026 to $18.5 billion. That’s putting fresh strain on a market HSBC warns could soon look pricey if profit expectations slip. The bank points out the street still pencils in 16% earnings growth for 2026, but it argues that number is now under threat.
Asia didn’t escape the slide either. Reuters said the MSCI Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan slipped 0.5%, while Japan’s Nikkei gave up 0.9% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.1%. India, like its neighbors, was swept up in a wider risk-off mood—not just a local downturn.
The immediate hurdle is clear enough. If Brent hovers at or above $100 for several months, HSBC says profit forecasts are probably heading lower—a 20% jump in crude prices could trim 1.5 percentage points off projected 2026 earnings growth. On the other hand, if Gulf tensions fade fast, attention will likely swing back to the stronger local demand that was already showing up in April’s PMI numbers.
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