Mumbai
The Indian stock market opened on a negative note on Wednesday, with significant selling pressure seen across most sectors, except for private banks. The Sensex dropped 414 points to trade at 78,260, while the Nifty fell by 167 points to 23,706 during early trade.
By the end of the session, both indices continued to slide. The Sensex closed at 77,690, down by 984 points or 1.25%, while the Nifty fell 324 points or 1.36%, settling at 23,559. The market has now witnessed a consistent decline, with Sensex down 1,795 points (2.26%) and Nifty down 589 points (2.44%) for the week so far.
The sectors hit hardest included metals, auto, and banking, contributing to a broad-based market decline. The overall market capitalization of listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) shrank by around Rs 6 lakh crore, now standing at Rs 430 lakh crore. Both smallcap and midcap stocks also faced heavy losses, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices falling by 2.64% and 2.96%, respectively.
Among the Sensex pack, M&M, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, and ICICI Bank were the biggest losers. On the positive side, NTPC, Tata Motors, and Infosys gained. Analysts noted that the market’s downturn was largely driven by continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows, weaker corporate earnings, and rising inflation.
Despite these challenges, the Nifty Bank index gained marginally by 0.07%. Market experts are closely watching the critical support zone for the Nifty, ranging between 23,700 and 23,779.
