On Tuesday, April 28, the Indian equity benchmarks fell precipitously from their intraday highs as investors became wary in response to an increase in the price of crude oil on global markets.
The NIFTY50 index hit an intraday low of 23,957 after reaching a high of 24,182 earlier in the session, pulled down by losses in index heavyweights including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and State Bank of India. The SENSEX plummeted as much as 752 points from the day’s highest level.
As April futures and option contracts expired, the NIFT50 index fell 97 points to conclude at 23,996 and the SENSEX ended 417 points lower at 76,887.
The NIFTY50 increased 2.96% and the NIFTY Bank index increased 3.15% in the April F&O series.
Following a 3.25% increase in global benchmark Brent Crude futures to $111.50 per barrel, investor mood suffered. Crude oil futures for delivery on May 18 increased by 3.225 on the MCX, reaching ₹9,399 a barrel.
According to news agency Reuters, crude oil increased for the second consecutive session on Tuesday as attempts to put an end to the US-Iran war seem to be at a standstill. The vital Strait of Hormuz canal is still largely closed, preventing global consumers from accessing energy supplies from the vital Middle East producing region.
With the exception of the oil and gas share measure, all 15 of the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) major sector gauges ended negative, with the NIFTY PSU Bank index falling more than 2%. Following the most recent revisions to expected credit loss (ECL) standards, state-run lenders faced pressure to sell.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made it clear on Monday that the new method will go into effect on April 1st of next year, rejecting requests for further time to switch to anticipated credit loss (ECL)-based provisioning.
The RBI stated in the “Directions on Asset Classification, Provisioning, and Income Recognition for Commercial Banks” that banks had requested further time for the shift because they needed to improve systems and create databases and models.
The RBI stated, “Banks have been provided a one-year timeline to prepare their internal systems for implementation of the new framework,” rejecting the comments on the draft that was initially released on October 7, 2025.
Additionally, the NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Auto, IT, and Private Bank indices decreased by 0.5% to 1.5%.
The NIFTY Midcap 100 index gained 0.3%, while the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index gained 0.42%, indicating that broader markets performed better than their larger counterparts.
Following its announcement that it had made a net profit of ₹360 crore, up 25% from ₹288 crore during the same time last year, City Union Bank’s individual shares increased by 8.2%.
The NIFTY50 index’s biggest loser was Axis Bank, whose stock dropped 2.7% to settle at ₹1,289. Additionally, Maruti Suzuki, HCL Technologies, Shriram Finance, InterGlobe Aviation, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India, and Infosys experienced declines ranging from 1.65% to 2.51%.
Conversely, the top gainers in the NIFTY50 index were ONGC, Adani Enterprises, Coal India, Reliance Industries, Nestle India, and Bharti Airtel.
With 1,784 shares closing lower and 1,490 closing higher on the NSE, the overall market breadth was negative.
