Volatility has shot up in the financial markets due to the ongoing West Asia conflict, but the Indian bourses have the capacity to “absorb different types of shocks”, Sebi Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Monday.
When there is a crisis in one part of the world, it also impacts the rest of the globe, Pandey told reporters here on the sideline of the Regional Investors Seminar for Awareness, PTI reported.
“Due to the prevailing conflict in West Asia, the oil supply chain and its prices got affected in the rest of the world. All the economies have been affected by this and obviously, there are inflationary risks. Besides, spillover effect and second-order effect will also come in,” he said.
“However, the advantages of a resilient Indian market are that it is able to absorb different types of shocks, and when these end, the market again resumes its normal trajectory,” Pandey said.
He also admitted that there have been some foreign portfolio investment outflows since September 2024, but domestic investors have “retained their confidence”, according to PTI. “Ups and downs in the market are quite natural because globally they are interconnected,” the Sebi chairman said.
Stock Market on May 18
Indian benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, ended Monday’s session (May 18) in green territory.
The BSE Sensex, after hitting an intraday high of 75,466.60, ended the session at 75,315.04, up 77.05 points or 0.10 per cent. The NSE Nifty50 settled at 23,649.95, up 6.45 points or 0.03 per cent. During the day Nifty50 swung between 23,695.65 and 23,317.10. Sensex and Nifty opened in red today. The BSE Sensex started at 74,807.97, while the Nifty 50 opened at 23,482.20.
Analysts said the market could remain under corrective pressure if the Nifty fails to reclaim the 23,800-24,000 range. A continued inability to breach this zone may drag the index towards key support levels of 23,200-23,000.
Foreign investors have also continued reducing exposure to Indian equities, withdrawing Rs 27,048 crore from the market so far this month, signalling caution amid evolving global macroeconomic trends and geopolitical tensions.
With these latest outflows, cumulative Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) withdrawals from Indian equities in 2026 have risen to Rs 2.2 lakh crore, exceeding the total net outflow of Rs 1.66 lakh crore recorded during the entirety of 2025, according to NSDL data. (With Agency Inputs)
(Disclaimer: The above article is meant for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as any investment advice. ET NOW DIGITAL suggests its readers/audience to consult their financial advisors before making any money-related decisions)
