Mumbai, 28 October 2026: The Sensex closed lower on Wednesday after a volatile session, ending down 352.64 points, or 0.48 percent, at 73,246.03. The 50-share Nifty slipped 50.90 points, or 0.22 percent, to 22,698.85. Selling in information technology and oil and gas stocks pulled the benchmarks down, while caution ahead of the United States Federal Reserve policy decision kept buyers on the sidelines. Brent crude traded above 115 dollars a barrel after a reported attack on a Saudi Arabian refinery revived concern about energy supplies.
The Sensex fell as much as 995.1 points during the day to an intraday low of 72,603.57, then recovered most of the loss before the close. The Nifty traded between 22,497.70 and 22,778.05 and finished below 22,700 for a second straight session. Market breadth stayed steady. Of 2,850 stocks traded on the exchanges, 1,457 closed higher and 1,340 closed lower, according to Trendlyne data. The Nifty 500 ended almost flat at 21,727.45, down 7.5 points.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.99 percent to 114.50 dollars a barrel by the close, after earlier climbing 1.4 percent to 115.47 dollars at 0435 GMT. Reuters linked the rise to a claim by the Iran-aligned Houthis that they had targeted Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery, Ras Tanura, with a missile on Tuesday. Saudi authorities did not immediately confirm the strike, Reuters reported. The refinery has capacity of 550,000 barrels per day. India imports most of its crude oil, so higher prices feed into fuel costs, the import bill and inflation expectations.
Sensex drag from IT and energy stocks
From the 30 Sensex firms, Reliance Industries dropped 3.46 percent, Infosys fell 3.34 percent, Tech Mahindra lost 1.83 percent, Tata Consultancy Services declined 1.68 percent, Bharti Airtel slipped 1.42 percent and Tata Steel fell 1.37 percent. The Nifty IT index fell 1.98 percent and the Nifty Oil and Gas index fell 2.27 percent, making them the weakest Sensex sector indexes of the day. Realty, energy and fast moving consumer goods indexes each fell about 0.5 percent.
Technology stocks have been under pressure as investors assess technology spending and artificial intelligence-linked earnings. Indian IT companies earn a large share of their revenue from overseas clients, mainly in the United States, so changes in United States growth expectations and corporate technology budgets matter for their order books. The Federal Reserve was due to announce its policy decision later on 28 October, with markets expecting rates unchanged and pricing in a roughly 75 percent chance of another rise in December.
Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth 4,240.39 crore rupees on Tuesday, according to exchange data. Provisional figures for Wednesday put foreign institutional buying at 872 crore rupees and domestic institutional buying at 643 crore rupees. The rupee opened at 95.01 against the dollar, touched an intraday low of 95.29 and settled provisionally at 95.28, down 21 paise from its previous close. A weaker rupee raises import costs and dulls dollar returns for overseas investors.
Sensex contrasts with gains in banks and autos
The Sensex session was not weak across the board. The Bank Nifty rose 292.50 points, or 0.54 percent, to 54,267.40. The Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.43 percent to 57,274.70 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 gained 0.90 percent to 18,634.90. The Nifty Auto index rose 1.45 percent, while consumer durables, media and pharma indexes each gained about 1 percent. Apollo Hospitals, Larsen and Toubro, Trent, SBI Life Insurance and InterGlobe Aviation led Nifty gainers.
Larsen and Toubro rose 3.7 percent after reporting a 33 percent rise in second quarter consolidated profit. Piramal Pharma jumped 16 percent after turning profitable in the quarter. Steel Authority of India fell 5 percent even though its second quarter consolidated profit rose 318.1 percent.
What traders watch after the Sensex close
The other big talking point of the day was the stock market debut of Jio Platforms. The Reliance Industries-backed digital services company ended nearly 27 percent higher than its issue price of 1,119 rupees, after listing at 1,358 rupees. Its market value crossed 13 lakh crore rupees, making it the second most valuable domestic firm after Reliance Industries by market capitalisation.
India VIX, the volatility index, fell 1 percent to close at 16.2 points, which pointed to calmer expectations for near term swings than the intraday fall in the Sensex suggested. Asian markets closed mixed and European markets traded with varied trends, while United States index futures were mixed ahead of the Federal Reserve decision. For Thursday, Sensex traders will watch crude prices, the rupee, the Federal Reserve commentary on inflation and interest rates, and the next set of quarterly results from large companies due on 29 October.