Domestic equity benchmarks fell one per cent each on Friday amid a broad-based sell-off where financial, IT, pharmaceutical and energy shares were the worst hit. Investors globally continued to weigh the impact of incoming tariffs on world economic growth. The Sensex gave up 765.5 points to end at 79,857.8 while the Nifty50 settled at 24,363.3, down 232.9 points from its previous close.
In the Nifty50 basket, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Adani Enterprises, Shriram Finance, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Grasim — falling between 1.9 per cent and 3.3 per cent for the day — were the top losers. On the other hand, NTPC, Titan and Dr Reddy’s Labs — closing around 1-1.5 per cent higher — rose the most among the nine gainers in the 50-blue-chip basket.
Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and Reliance were the biggest contributors to the losses in both main indices, though gains in NTPC and Titan lent some support.
The Nifty Bank — whose 12 constituents include stocks of banking behemoths SBI and HDFC Bank — plunged 516.3 points, or 0.9 per cent, to close at 55,004.9, dragged also by losses in ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
SBI weathered the storm, finishing almost unchanged at Rs 804.6, after the country’s largest bank by assets beat analysts’ expectations with its quarterly profit.
Volatility index India VIX — also known popularly as the fear index — jumped 3.0 per cent to settle at 12.03.
Investors awaited more corporate earnings from India Inc for domestic cues.
