Rising crude oil prices, relentless foreign fund outflows and weakness in the rupee have also hit investors' sentiment. In Asian markets, South Korea's benchmark Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped sharply. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,518.39 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought stocks worth Rs 5,706.23 crore. Foreign investors have pulled out Rs 88,180 crore (about USD 9.6 billion) from Indian equities so far this month.

Source: The Telegraph March 23, 2026 08:45 UTC