6 hours ago
The Indian equity market saw a sharp fall in the last hour of trading on Thursday, tracking rising geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan. The combination of escalating tensions and the impact of the weekly derivatives expiry triggered broad-based selling across sectors.
The benchmark Nifty 50 index opened 17 points higher on the back of strong global cues but was not able to sustain the early gains. In the afternoon session, the index fell more than 200 points as geopolitical concerns intensified.
Sharp intraday weakness was seen in the later part of the session and the Nifty finally ended near the day's low. The index settled with losses of 141 points at 24,274. As many as 45 Nifty stocks closed in the red, with some falling as much as 4%.
The broader markets witnessed even steeper declines. A huge selloff was seen in the midcap segment, where 94 out of the 100 stocks in the Nifty Midcap index ended lower.
Barring Nifty IT and Media, all the sectoral Indices ended in the red. The Nifty Realty, Metals, and Auto sectors were the major losers, bearing the brunt of the negative sentiment.
The sell-off in the market was seen as traders remained concern over escalating tensions between India and Pakistan after Indian forces neutralised air defence system in Lahore.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also said that Operation Sindoor is still on and that India will hit back if Pakistan escalates the situation.
Going ahead, market attention will shift to earnings reports from Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Manappuram Finance, Swiggy, CE Info Systems, Bank of India, India Shelter Finance Corporation, ABB India, Birla Corporation, Cholamandalam Financial Holdings, and Thermax.
Additionally, stocks like Larsen and Toubro, Titan, REC, Kalyan Jewellers, among others will also be in the spotlight tomorrow, as these companies reported their Q4 numbers after market hours on Thursday.
Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities said that the underlying trend of Nifty is weak with high volatility. The rising geo-political tension is weighing high on the market and leading to nervousness.
According to Shetti, a fall below 24,200 could open the next lower support of 23,850 levels. Immediate resistance is placed at 24,450 levels.
LKP Securities' Rupak De said the near-term sentiment appears weak, with the potential for further correction in the short term. "Immediate support is seen at 23,950; a break below this level could lead the index down towards 23,450. On the upside, resistance is placed at 24,400 and 24,550."
