Sensex Falls 114 Points to 75,200; Nifty Slips to 23,618 Amid Rupee Crash

The Indian equity benchmarks gave up their massive early gains to close in the red during a highly volatile trading session on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Markets initially surged strongly on the optimism generated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a pause on a planned military strike against Iran. However, this early positive momentum evaporated late in the day as aggressive profit-booking in blue-chip heavyweights like HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries dragged the indices lower. The BSE Sensex closed at 75,200.85, down by 114.19 points, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 31.95 points to settle precisely at 23,618.00. The broader markets, however, heavily outperformed the frontline indices, with the Nifty Midcap 100 rising 0.9% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 jumping 1.2%. A massive driver of the late sell-off was the Indian Rupee crashing past the 96.50 mark to hit a fresh all-time low of 96.53 against the US dollar. Despite the overarching weakness, robust buying in IT stocks provided significant support, with the Nifty IT index rallying for the third consecutive day as global tech trends brace for massive upcoming earnings reports #StockMarket #Sensex #Nifty50.