Sensex Today: It was a one way street for Dalal Street investors on Friday as weak global sentiment weighed heavily and amid profit booking by investors ahead of the Union Budget 2024 presentation next week.
The strength in the information technology (IT) stocks also waned by fag-end, leading to a broad-based selling.
The BSE Sensex slumped 739 points, or 0.91 per cent, to end at 80,605 levels, while the Nifty50 gave up 24,550-mark to end at 24,531, down 270 points or 1 per cent.
Notably, the indices had hit record highs of 81,588 and 24,855, respectively, in the morning trade.
26 of the 30 Sensex index stocks, and 46 of the 50 Nifty stocks settled with losses. The top losers on the benchmarks were Tata Steel, BPCL, JSW Steel, Hindalco, NTPC, Tata Motors, ONGC, Coal India, and Ultratech Cement, which fell between 3 per cent and 5 per cent.
The selling in the broader market was even steeper with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices falling 2.2 per cent each.
All the sectoral indices ended in the red zone, led by the Nifty Metal (4 per cent), the Nifty Realty (2.66 per cent), and the Nifty Auto (2.4 per cent).
Global Cues
In the US, markets closed lower with the Dow Jones leading the losses, down 1.29 per cent, followed by the S&P 500 (down 0.78 per cent) and Nasdaq (down 0.70 per cent). Meanwhile, US weekly jobless claims saw an increase amid seasonal fluctuations, highlighting ongoing volatility in the labour market.
Across Asia, most markets traded in the red. Australia’s ASX200 fell 1.05 per cent, Korea’s Kospi dropped over 1.05 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei, meanwhile, was off lows, and rose 0.11 per cent after the announcement of inflation figures, which met street expectations.
