Mumbai. Amid the mixed trend of global markets, there was a huge fall in the shares of some big companies at the domestic level on Thursday due to heavy selling. Sensex fell by 1,190 points while Nifty fell by 361 points. Analysts said that amid increasing global tensions, there was a big fall in the domestic market due to heavy selling in Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.
BSE’s benchmark index Sensex based on 30 shares closed at 79,043.74 with a plunge of 1,190.34 points or 1.48 percent. At one time during trading it had fallen by 1,315.16 points to 78,918.92. Due to this decline, the total market capitalization of BSE listed companies decreased by Rs 1.50 lakh crore to Rs 442.98 lakh crore. National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty also fell by 360.75 points or 1.49 percent to 23,914.15.
Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “After a strong start to the week, there was a declining trend in domestic markets. “Uncertainty over interest rate cuts and increasing geopolitical tensions led to selling in the US market, leading to a decline in stocks related to information technology (IT) and consumer products related to discretionary spending.” Among the companies included in the Sensex group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries and Power Grid closed mainly with losses. On the other hand, State Bank of India (SBI) was the only stock in profit.
Meanwhile, shares of five companies of Adani Group surrounded by controversies closed sharply. Adani Total Gas rose by about 16 percent while Adani Energy Solutions rose by 10 percent, Adani Green Energy by 10 percent and Adani Enterprises by 1.63 percent. The BSE Smallcap index related to small companies was up by 0.41 percent while the Midcap index was down by 0.06 percent.
Siddharth Khemka, Head of Research (Asset Management), Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said, “Nifty fell 1.49 percent due to monthly settlement of futures and options deals and weak global cues. “Intensification of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and uncertainty over US interest rates also impacted sentiment.” In other markets of Asia, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei remained on the rise while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with a decline.
Most of the markets in Europe were trading with gains. On Wednesday, US markets closed with a decline due to selling in technology companies. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net purchases of shares worth Rs 7.78 crore on Wednesday. Global oil standard Brent crude rose 0.49 percent to $ 73.18 per barrel. On Wednesday, BSE Sensex rose 230.02 points to 80,234.08 and NSE Nifty rose 80.40 points to 24,274.90.