The Telugu Desam Party’s decision to dump the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and US President Donald Trump’s decision to fire the White House security adviser and go ahead with levying import duties at the cost of provoking a trade war delivered a double-blow to the domestic equity market on Friday.

The main stock indices of Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange after a weak start to business in Dalal Street slipped further in the afternoon in a knee-jerk reaction to TDP’s decision to move a no-trust motion against the NDA in Lok Sabha on Monday.

Analysts say it will be the first floor-test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in four years but are skeptical about the Opposition ousting the government as they cite that the BJP alone has 274 sitting MPs in the lower House of Parliament which is two more than the halfway mark required to prove a simple majority.

The benchmarks of BSE and NSE went into free fall mode with all sectoral sub-indices in the red. Bear hammering in the last 30 minutes turned into a virtual bloodbath. The market closed for the week with deeper cuts.

Nevertheless, the market mood was badly bruised for the entire week on account of BJP’s losses in Uttar Pradesh and exit of TDP from the NDA coalition.

The market has already been circumspect since last month in the aftermath of Punjab National Bank’s letters of undertaking fraud. Stock have seen excessive selling rather than buying except a few spells of short-covering or value buying. The market does not rule out snap Parliamentary election, say analysts.

The 30-share sensitive Index of BSE closed for the week 1.51 per cent down at 33,176 (-509.54) points. The broader market’s 50-stock Nifty of NSE slipped 1.59 per cent to end 10,195 (-165) points. Nifty Bank lost 1.22 per cent at 24,489.55 (-302.30) points.

The Sensex has crashed nearly 9 per cent from its record high of 36,443 points. The Nifty is also down by over 1,100 points. Analysts expect the downside pressure to continue at least until the government proves its majority in the LS. For the current month both foreign portfolio investors or FPIs and Domestic Institutional Investors or DIIs are still net buyers in equity worth `6,399.8 crore and `1,101 crore respectively.

Nifty PSU Bank was the lone gainer like on Thursday. This week, analysts point out, Nifty PSU Bank increased 4 per cent its biggest weekly gain since September 2017. But the index is 24 lower than its all-time record high.

According to Dalal Street buzz, state-run lenders have evinced buying interest from participants in the wake of banks’ decision to tighten lending norms for loans above `25 crore.

Henceforth, banks would ask promoters/borrowers to give equity upfront for assessing the quality of equity and ascertain loss absorption capacity of the borrowing entity. Moreover, the government too is all set to bar potential defaulters with `50 crore outstanding debts from flying abroad.

In the Sensex five shares ended up and 26 down. For Nifty the ratio was 9:41. Top losers in BSE benchmark included Tata Motors Rs 340, -3.70 per cent; Kotak Mahindra Bank `1,059.55, -2.58 per cent; ITC Rs 261.40, -1.56 per cent; and Maruti Suzuki `8,711, -1.38 per cent. Among buyers were MnM Rs 744.90, 1.34 per cent; and HUL `1,304, 0.57 per cent.