Indian Shares Nosedive Amid West Asia Crisis

(RTTNews) - Indian shares plunged on Thursday as the U.S. Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish hold and escalating attacks on Persian Gulf oil-and-gas infrastructure sent oil prices soaring.

The dollar rose broadly while short-dated U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest level since last August after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell struck a more hawkish tone on inflation and data showed inflation at the U.S. wholesale level unexpectedly accelerated last month to 3.4 percent.

Fed officials' latest projections predicted a quarter point rate cut this year, but Powell warned that "you won't see the rate cut" if there isn't further progress on inflation because of the broader uncertainty linked to the Middle East conflict and President Trump's tariffs.

Meanwhile, Brent crude prices jumped nearly 10 percent to reach $118 a barrel after Israel attacked upstream energy assets in Iran and the latter vowed retaliation, escalating attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.

Iran has threatened to attack energy infrastructure across Saudi Arbia, the UAE and Qatar after missiles had targeted its gas facilities at the giant South Pars field, the largest gas reserves in the world.

The UAE temporarily suspended operations at the Habshan gas facilities due to falling debris from interceptions of missiles.

Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City, home to the world's biggest LNG export terminal, suffered significant damage following a missile strike.

The attacks on critical energy infrastructure rattled markets already reeling from the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the continued blocking of oil and gas exports from the Gulf region.

The benchmark BSE Sensex slumped 2,496.89 points, or 3.26 percent, to 74,207.24 after rising for three consecutive sessions.

The broader NSE Nifty index plunged 775.65 points, or 3.26 percent, to 23,002.15, while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes lost 3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 3,192 shares falling while 1,051 shares advanced and 161 shares closed unchanged.

Banks paced the decliners, with HDFC Bank shares falling 5.1 percent after part-time Chairman of the bank and Independent Director, Atanu Chakraborty, resigned from the board with immediate effect, citing 'ethical' concerns.

Peers Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India tumbled 2-4 percent.

Among other prominent decliners, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, HCL Technologies, TCS, Maruti Suzuki India, Infosys, Trent, Bajaj FinServ, IndiGo, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra and Eternal plummeted 3-6 percent.