New Delhi, 02 April (H.S.):
Domestic equity markets staged a stunning intraday bounce‑back after a deep early‑session sell‑off, reclaiming nearly all losses to close firmly in the green. Following aggressive US‑style rhetoric by US President Donald Trump toward Iran, global markets, including India, opened in risk‑off mode, with the BSE Sensex plunging over 1,588 points and the Nifty shedding around 500 points in the first half of the session. Yet from the lows, a sharp rally saw the Sensex surge 2,022.73 points from its intraday trough and the Nifty leap 599.75 points, turning the day’s sentiment decisively positive.
Market analysts attribute today’s dramatic recovery to three key factors: aggressive buying at lower levels, a powerful rally in the Indian rupee, and a marked improvement in the India VIX (India Volatility Index). Of these, the surge in the rupee appears to have played the most important role in stabilising mood on Dalal Street.
Ravi Chandar Khurana, CEO of Khurana Securities and Financial Services, said trading began on a negative note, with Asian markets sharply lower and US futures weak as the Trump‑administration‑induced geopolitical jitters spread anxiety worldwide. “The domestic market kept sliding, and the fall quickly exceeded two percent. But a sharp rupee upside, which outpaced the strength in the dollar index, completely changed the tone,” he explained.
The Reserve Bank of India tightened position‑limits on local currency trading and imposed stricter controls on foreign‑exchange derivatives, curbing speculative bets against the rupee. This led the currency to jump nearly two percent against the US dollar in the morning, briefly touching a 12‑year high of ₹92.82 per dollar—its single‑session surge in over a decade. Even after the rupee slipped back to below ₹93 per dollar in the late afternoon on renewed dollar demand, it still ended the day up about 1.75 percent against the greenback.
The rupee also recorded hefty gains against the British pound (strengthening by up to ₹3.26 per GBP) and the euro (by about ₹1.99 per euro), further boosting investor confidence.
The rupee’s resilience lifted risk appetite among domestic investors, triggering what many described as “value‑buying” at the lows.
According to Prashant Dhamee, Vice President at Dhami Securities, the sharp rupee move encouraged investors to step in at discounted levels across both large‑caps and the broader market, including midcap and smallcap segments. “Even though the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices ended the day marginally in the red, they both recovered over two percent from their intraday lows, reflecting strong bottom‑feeding,” Dhamee noted.
The India VIX, which had spiked in the morning on heightened uncertainty, eased notably in the second half of the session. “The drop in the India VIX gave traders more confidence to buy on weakness, and that helped drive the intraday V‑shaped recovery,” Dhamee added. Sector‑wise, most indices turned positive after the afternoon rebound, though public‑sector enterprises, oil & gas, healthcare, consumer durables and autos ended the day in the red due to profit‑booking in the last half‑hour.
Overall, the combination of central‑bank‑driven currency strength, lower volatility, and a wave of bargain‑hunting at the lows turned a potentially bearish‑turning‑day into a classic intraday recovery, underscoring the resilience embedded in today’s market structure despite the external geopolitical noise.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
