West Asia tensions: Raja Venkatraman recommends three energy stocks to track amid volatility

Best stocks to buy today (All Buy trades are rates of Equity & Sell rates are based on F&O)ONGC: Buy above ₹266, stop ₹250 target ₹299 (Multiday)RELIANCE: Buy above ₹1385, stop ₹1290 target ₹1550 (Multiday)ATGL: Buy above ₹570, stop ₹530 target ₹650 (Multiday)In 1991, the Gulf War sent crude prices sharply higher and almost doubled India’s oil import burden in a short span. Because India was heavily import-dependent and had very low foreign-exchange buffers, every extra dollar of crude directly worsened the macro picture.

Forex reserves fell to barely a few weeks of imports, leaving policymakers with almost no room for error. The rupee had to be steeply devalued, inflation pressures rose, and what began as a commodity shock quickly morphed into a full-blown balance-of-payments crisis.This was not a routine “buy the dip” market correction but an episode where the entire system looked vulnerable.

The key lesson from 1991 is that when buffers are weak, geopolitics is not just noise; it directly becomes a survival question for the economy and financial markets.Post-1991 reforms were essentially about building buffers so that one oil spike could no longer break the economy. Over the decades, India increased foreign-exchange reserves, improved inflation management, and built stronger macro-institutions.

Market plumbing changed too: domestic mutual funds, SIP culture, and long-term local investors now provide a more stable base of capital.Since then, India has lived through Kargil, the global financial crisis, multiple border flare-ups and various West Asia scares. In most of these, equity drawdowns around geopolitical events have been sharp but relatively short-lived, with markets often recovering once crude and the rupee