Geopolitical tensions drag sensex 961 pts

MUMBAI: Across the board selling pulled the sensex down by 961 points (1.2%) on Friday, and the 30-share index closed at 81,287 points with banks leading the slide. Tariff uncertainty, foreign fund selling and no visible progress in Iran-US talks left investors jittery and pressing the sell button ahead of the weekend.

Foreign funds led the selling with a Rs 7,536 crore net outflow for the day. Combined with Thursday’s Rs 2,429 crore net selling, the aggregate in just two sessions is close to Rs 10,000 crore.

On NSE, Nifty lost 318 points or 1.3% to close at 25,179 points. The day’s slide in the market left investors poorer by Rs 5 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at 463.5 lakh crore.

According to Ajit Mishra, SVP—Research, Religare Broking, in Friday’s market, selling was largely broad-based across sectors. “Investor sentiment weakened due to a combination of factors including inconsistent foreign flows, weak global cues and lingering geopolitical tensions. In addition, the underperformance of select heavyweights across sectors further intensified the decline.” Among the 30 sensex constituents, 25 closed in the red. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel contributed the most to the day’s slide in the index.

In the broader market, the advance-decline ratio was not as skewed as in sensex. Compared to 2,633 stocks that declined, there were 1,574 that advanced, BSE data showed.

Wall St declines

Wall Street’s main indices dropped on Friday as AI anxiety hammered technology stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 602 points, or 1.2%, to 48,897, S& lost 46 points, or 0.7%, to 6,863, and Nasdaq Composite was down 226.6 points, or 1%, to 22,652.