US-Iran war: Market volatility at new peak as India VIX zooms 19%

The ongoing US-Iran war led to heightened volatility on Dalal Street on Monday. India VIX, the volatility index, of the Indian stock market rallied 19.48% to 16.45 against 13.70 on Friday. The surge in market volatility came as Indian and Asian markets crashed taking into account the attack by the US and Israel on Iran, which escalated a war in a Middle East with the latter launching retaliatory attacks on Israel and US military bases in the Gulf region. 

Sentiment was also dampened after the Indian stock market reacted to a 12% rally in the brent crude rates amid reports of Iran blocking Hormuz Strait, a passage for nearly 20% of the global oil supply. 

On a year-to-date basis, the volatility index has surged 73.52%, reflecting uneasy sentiment in the Indian stock market hit by Trump tariffs, US-Iran War and the global economic slowdown.

The rising market volatility this year has sent Sensex lower by 6.33% and Nifty by 5.34%. 

Meanwhile, Sensex plunged 1463 points to 79,825 and Nifty crashed 482 points to 24,696 in the afternoon  session today. Market cap of BSE listed firms slipped by Rs 6.82 lakh crore to Rs 456.55 lakh crore today against the market cap of Rs 463.51 lakh crore on Friday (February 27).  

All Sensex stocks were trading in the red. L&T, IndiGo, Adani Ports, Maruti, M&M and Asian Paints shares were the top Sensex losers, slipping up to 5.69% today.