Indices end the day in red on sell-off in US stock exchanges

Sensex fell by 886 points, to 80,982, and Nifty dropped 284 points to a low of 24,727

MUMBAI: Dragged down by losses in auto and IT stocks, coupled with a massive sell-off in US exchanges triggered by disappointing US financial data, Indian benchmark indices ended in the red on Friday, the final trading day of the week.

The BSE Sensex fell by 885.6 points, or 1.08 per cent at 80,981.93, while the NSE Nifty50 closed at 24,726.9 points, down by 284 points, or 1.14 per cent.

On the NSE, top gainers included Divi’s Lab, HDFC Bank, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, Sun Pharma, and Britannia. In contrast, major losers were Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, Maruti, JSW Steel, and Hindalco.

According to Srikanth Chauhan of Kotak Securities, Friday’s decline erased the week’s earlier gains, though the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices performed relatively better.

He noted that domestic indicators, such as a 58.1 Manufacturing PMI and 10 per cent GST growth, were overshadowed by global market reactions to central bank meetings and foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows.

Vinod Nair from Geojit pointed out that the broad sell-off was driven by high valuations and weak Q1FY25 earnings, despite the potential for US Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Rupee at record low on global equity sell-off

The Indian rupee slipped to a record low on Friday, tracking the global equity sell-off driven by fears of a US economic slowdown and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The rupee closed down 0.04 per cent at 83.75 against the US dollar, its weakest closing level, after hitting an all-time low of 83.7525 earlier in the session. Week-on-week, the currency was nearly flat.

Traders reported that the Reserve Bank of India likely intervened by selling dollars through state-run banks to prevent a sharper decline, as the rupee faced pressure from potential outflows from local equities.