India's Sensex and Nifty Hold Firm as Asian Chip Stocks Tumble

India's benchmark indices opened little changed on July 28, defying a sharp sell-off across Asian markets driven by a global retreat in semiconductor stocks. The BSE Sensex began the session near 76,831 and the Nifty 50 around 23,971, both broadly flat, after the Nifty had recovered from a five-session losing streak the previous day. Information technology shares provided support, with the Nifty IT index rising about 2% as heavyweights such as TCS and Infosys advanced, while energy and public-sector bank stocks lagged. The relative calm contrasted with steep falls elsewhere in Asia, where South Korea's Kospi crashed about 10% and Japan's Nikkei dropped roughly 4% after the strong Shanghai debut of Chinese memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies stoked competition fears. Softer crude oil prices, which slipped toward $86 a barrel amid reports of progress in US-Iran talks, helped cushion Indian sentiment given the country's heavy dependence on energy imports. Foreign institutional investors have remained net sellers in recent sessions, though domestic institutions have continued to absorb much of that selling, lending the market additional stability.