Indices close 2% lower, wave of broad-based selling sweeps market
The decline was driven by escalating Middle East tensions, SEBI's tightening grip on F&O trading, and a surging Chinese market luring away foreign investors.
Sensex was up 599.34 points, or 0.83 per cent at 73,088.33, while the Nifty was up 151.20 points or 0.69 per cent at 22,147.
The stock market on Friday bounced back from the morning’s low to break a four-day losing streak in yet another volatile session. The jump was helped by gains in banking and metal names.
Sensex was up 599.34 points, or 0.83 per cent at 73,088.33, while the Nifty was up 151.20 points or 0.69 per cent at 22,147. For the overall week, the Sensex and the Nifty50 fell 1.5 per cent each.
In the sector-wise analysis, the bank and metal indices were up a percent each, and the FMCG index was up 0.5 per cent. Healthcare, IT, power and realty were down 0.3-0.6 per cent.
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Over 150 stocks including Avenue Supermarts, Bharti Airtel, Elecon Engineering, Force Motors, Indus Towers, JSW Energy, Just Dial and KSB Pumps touched their 52-week high on the BSE.
On Nifty50, the gainers were Bajaj Finance Ltd (3.15%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (2.92%), HDFC Bank Ltd (2.64%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (2.30%), and JSW Steel Ltd (2.27%).
On the other side, on the losing side were Bajaj Auto Ltd (2.48%), Nestlé India Ltd (1.32%), Divis Laboratories Ltd (1.32%), HCL Technologies Ltd (1.16%), and Larsen & Toubro Ltd (1.07%).
Shares of Tata Communications dropped 5% in trade as brokerages hinted at limited upside potential in the stock after the company’s weak earnings for the January-March quarter.
The losses in today’s session also marked an eighth straight day of decline for Tata Communications, falling around 14%.
The broader market ended in the red, with the BSE MidCap index closing down 0.39%, and the BSE Smallcap index closing down 0.04%.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 100 percent was seen in L&T Finance Holdings, Nalco and Atul.
Shares of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) witnessed selling pressure in the early morning session but attracted the attention of bottom fishers at their intraday lows.
After touching the intraday low, RVNL share price bounced back strongly and logged a more than 4 percent rise against the intraday low.
RVNL informed the exchanges that it has emerged as the lower bidder for a contract worth Rs 440 crore from South Central Railway.
The rupee pared initial losses to finally settle 4 paise higher at 83.48 against the US dollar on Friday, tracking a strong rebound in domestic equities.
Forex traders said the domestic currency fell in early trade on risk aversion in global markets amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
In the global market, an escalation of tensions in the Middle East kept stock markets on edge, though haven assets including bonds and the dollar gave up some early gains after Iranian media appeared to downplay the impact of Israeli strikes.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index fell 0.7%, set for a third straight week of losses. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 were down 0.5% and 0.8% respectively.
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