Dalal Street Blues: Sensex falls 1,100 points, closes below 79,000 after 10 months

MUMBAI: Deteriorating geopolitical situation in West Asia and market conditions across the globe pulled sensex down by nearly 1,100 points on Friday. The index closed below the 79K mark for the first time since April 2025. Banks led the slide as foreign funds sold, dealers said.

Sensex started the session on a weak note, down about 350 points from Thursday's close at 80,016 points, mainly on the back of overnight sell-off in the US markets and remained in the red through the session. In the last hour of the session, sensex dipped to an intra-day low at 78,812 points and closed a tad above that level, at 78,919 points, down 1,097 points (1.4%).

Taking a similar trajectory, the Nifty on NSE also lost 315 points (1.3%) to close at 24,450 points. The day also saw market volatility spike with its index India VIX, also called the fear gauge, closing 11% up.

The day's session also left investors poorer by about Rs 3.2 lakh crore with BSE's market capitalisation now at Rs 449.7 lakh crore.

Foreign funds continued their recent selling spree in the stock market with the day's net outflow figure at Rs 6,030 crore. In the last four sessions, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have net withdrawn funds worth nearly Rs 21,600 crore, translating to almost $2.4 billion, data showed.

"A sustained rise in oil prices could weigh on investor sentiment and adversely affect India's twin deficits, inflation trajectory, and the RBI's monetary stance. An uptick in the US 10-year bond yield and a stronger dollar have prompted FPIs to adopt a risk-off approach toward domestic equities," Vinod Nair of Geojit investments wrote in a note.

In the commodities segment, during Friday's late session on MCX, crude oil futures contracts rallied sharply to hit consecutive upper circuits, on the back of a sharp rise in global markets.

At 2200IST, crude oil futures contracts on MCX for March delivery were trading at Rs 8,172/barrel, up 11.7%. Earlier in the session, Brent crude prices had rallied to over $91/barrel mark, a more than two-year high level.