Early on Monday, all three major U.S. indexes touched their lowest levels in more than a year, and the CBOE Volatility index breached 60 points, which was its highest level since August 2024. In the afternoon, the volatility index, seen as Wall Street s fear gauge, was at 46.35 points. "On a constructive note, we re still off of the early morning lows," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Rosenblatt Securities.

Technical analysts suggest the Nifty is at a crucial juncture, with 21,700-21,900 acting as a key support. A break below this level could trigger a further decline to 21,200-21,300.

A global retreat in crude oil prices to bear territory cushioned the rupee s fall, as did likely dollar sales by exporters and RBI to help the unit find a floor, traders said.

Gold prices in Kolkata experienced a nearly 3% drop, falling to ₹88,401 per 10 gm, triggering a surge in demand from wedding shoppers and bullion investors. Jewelers anticipate a significant increase in sales volume this week, driven by the price correction and upcoming wedding season.

​​A​mong the top corporate groups, the Bajaj Group emerged as a rare gainer in 2025. It added Rs 87,000 crore in market value so far this year and has now overtaken the Adani Group to become India’s third-most valuable business house, after Tata and Reliance.

Almost a dozen venture-backed startups are in different stages of going public in the current financial year. These include Bluestone, Ather Energy, PhysicsWallah, Shadowfax, Zepto, Captain Fresh, Groww, Lenskart, Meesho, OfBusiness, Urban Company and Boat. Bluestone, Ather Energy, Boat and PhysicsWallah have already filed their draft papers with the stock market regulator.

According to a report by Prabhudas Lilladher Capital, India exported $2.6 billion of automobiles and ancillaries to the US in FY24. The export of ancillaries at $2.1 billion was 80% of the category export to the US. A report by Crisil highlighted that the US forms a significant 28% of the auto component exports from India.

While the VIX is at the highest level in 10 months since the general elections in June, the fear gauge had previously shot up around 64% in August 2015 during the global market turmoil.

It expects investors to see through the short-term volatility and properly appreciate the country s robust macro-economic fundamentals, especially better medium-term growth prospects, compared to other major economies, he told ET.

Stocks in China and Hong Kong plunged 7.3% and 13.2%, respectively, as Beijing announced tariff retaliation. Japan tumbled 7.8%, South Korea dropped 5.6% and Taiwan slumped nearly 10%. China and Hong Kong had resumed trading on Monday after a holiday.