Both the Nifty and the Sensex began the trading day and week on a weak note on August 17, 2026. The Nifty opened at 24,343.45; the Sensex opened at 77,892.92. Brent Crude oil prices traded near 89 dollars per barrel after the sharp decline in vessel movements through the Strait of Hormuz. The Indian rupee also opened on a flat note at 95.48 to the dollar versus Friday’s close of 95.43 to the dollar. Besides auto, all sectoral indices traded under pressure in early trade.

G. Chokkalingam Head of Research at Equinomics Research told Times Now Digital, “most macroeconomic parameters like crop area, forex reserves, etc remain favourable. FPIs also turned net buyers of Indian equities, purchasing equities worth Rs 16,600 crore in the first fortnight of August. Corporate earnings growth is also strong: over 4,200 companies reported 21% yoy growth in net profit in Q1FY2027. However IPO boom again renewed after mobilising over Rs 1.59 lakh crore in CY2024 and Rs.1.75 lakh crore in CY2025. Around Rs 68,000 crore has already been mobilised through IPOs so far in 2026. Another 96 companies hold regulatory approvals to raise around Rs.1.25 lakh crore. Unfortunately, liquidity available to the secondary market is likely to be tight due to this continued boom in the IPO market. Net inflows into equity mutual fund schemes also fell 15% month-on-month to Rs 24,697 crore in July. The IPO boom over the last 3 years has expanded the number of listed stocks and also partly helped lift the overall market cap of all-listed stocks close to Rs 500 lakh crore now. Secondary markets need a lot more liquidity support , which is quite tight now. Hence overall market is likely to be under pressures this week. After two years, Sensex is still down around 9 percent and most quality stocks are down. This kind of disappointment has happened several times in the last 30 years. But this bad episode will also pass, and good times will return. This is the nature of stock markets. Thus, our suggestion is to stay invested in quality stocks and manage the risk of capital market risk by diversifying overall financial wealth into safe fixed income securities and also by not investing borrowed money into equities.”

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