HDalal Street continued its downward momentum on Friday as it plunged nearly 1%, with broad-based selling witnessed across sectors.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell nearly 700 points to 82,509.59, while the NSE Nifty50 declined by nearly 200 points to 25,162.25 as of 12:21 pm.
On the one hand, FMCG stocks gained, with HUL leading the rise, jumping 5%, but this was overweighed by the losses experienced in the IT sector.
Major stocks such as RIL also fell, dragging the markets lower.
IT stocks fell over lower than expected Q1 results from TCS, with the Nifty IT index falling over 1% in the afternoon session.
“Firstly this drag is clear with the weakness in IT stocks, as the Nifty IT index fell nearly 1.85 percent after TCS reported Q1 numbers that disappointed investors. The company’s rupee revenue rose 1.3 percent to Rs 63,437 crore but declined over 3 percent in constant currency terms due to market headwinds, signalling that large-cap IT firms are still struggling with global challenges and tight client budgets,” said Trivesh D, COO Tradejini.
He further added that global sentiment has turned cautious again with the United States imposing fresh tariffs on Canada and markets watching for possible sanctions on Russia.
“Adding to it investors are also trading carefully ahead of any clarity on the India-US trade agreement. Altogether, weak IT earnings and renewed trade worries are weighing on sentiment, prompting traders to lock in gains and stay defensive until there is more certainty,” said Trivesh.
The top five gainers in the afternoon session were Hindustan Unilever up 4.77%, Sun Pharmaceutical up 0.51%, Axis Bank up 0.48%, and Eternal up 0.32%.
Tata Consultancy Services crashed 2.75%, Mahindra & Mahindra fell 2.43%, Bharti Airtel dropped 2.12%, Bajaj Finserv declined 1.72%, and Reliance was down 1.68%.
The broader market indices were in red as Nifty Midcap100 fell 0.86%, Nifty Smallcap100 dropped 1.00%, and India VIX rose 1.90%. Among the sectoral indices, only a few managed to stay positive with Nifty FMCG up 0.81%, Nifty Pharma rising 0.64%, and Nifty Healthcare gaining 0.08%.
The losing sectors included Nifty Auto down 1.36%, Nifty Financial Services falling 0.49%, Nifty IT declining 1.86%, Nifty Media dropping 1.38%, Nifty Metal down 0.21%, Nifty PSU Bank falling 0.57%, Nifty Private Bank down 0.24%, Nifty Realty declining 0.65%, Nifty Consumer Durables dropping 0.67%, and Nifty Oil & Gas down 1.19%.
The market showed widespread selling pressure across most sectors with IT and auto stocks facing the steepest declines. Only sectors like FMCG and pharma managed to stay in positive territory amid the broad market weakness.