Market wrap: NIFTY50 falls 336 points, SENSEX plunges below 83,000; Metals, Realty and IT stocks drag

Indian equity benchmarks closed sharply lower on Friday, tracking weak cues from US markets. Markets made a gap-down opening and remained under selling pressure throughout the session, as IT stocks declined amid concerns that rapid advances in AI tools could reduce demand for outsourcing work, which forms the backbone of India’s IT business model.

Traders overlooked India’s retail inflation data, which stood at 2.75% in January under the new series of All India Consumer Price Index (CPI), with 2024 as the base year. Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said that the new CPI series will improve the quality of data used in formulating monetary and fiscal policies.

Passenger vehicle dispatches rise 13% in January: Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said that domestic passenger vehicle dispatches from companies to dealers rose 13 per cent year-on-year to 4,49,616 units in January.

On the global front, European equity markets were trading mostly in the green, ahead of key Eurozone GDP. Asian markets ended lower as investors worried over the impact of artificial intelligence on various sectors and looked to U.S. CPI data later in the day for clues on when the Federal Reserve might cut rates.

The SENSEX ended at 82626.76, down by 1048.16 points or 1.25% after trading in a range of 82534.55 and 83079.70. 2 stocks were advancing against 28 stocks declining on the index.

The few losing sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal down by 3.21%, Basic Materials down by 2.27%, Realty down by 2.27%, Utilities down by 2.26% and Energy down by 1.94%, while there were no gaining sectoral indices.

The only gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 2.96% and SBI up by 0.29%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 4.47%, Eternal down by 4.16%, Tata Steel down by 2.50%, Titan Company down by 2.38% and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone down by 2.27% were the top losers.

The NIFTY50 ended at 25471.10, down by 336.10 points or 1.30% after trading in a range of 25444.30 and 25630.35. 6 stocks were advancing against 44 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 2.57%, Eicher Motors up by 1.56%, SBI Life Insurance up by 0.84%, SBI up by 0.52% and Cipla up by 0.11%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 5.74%, Hindustan Unilever down by 4.34%, Eternal down by 4.30%, Adani Enterprises down by 3.83% and ONGC down by 3.24% were the top losers.