A wave of panic swept through the domestic equity market on Friday, leading to steep declines in benchmark indices. The Nifty slumped almost 2% to close below 22,125, as persistent FII selling and weak global cues fueled a broad sell-off. All sectoral indices on the NSE closed lower, with IT and auto stocks registering significant losses. Investor sentiment was eroded by concerns stemming from the announcement of potential import levies by U.S. President Trump.
The S&P BSE Sensex tanked 1414.33 points or 1.90% to 73,198.10. The Nifty 50 index declined 420.35 points or 1.86% to 22,124.70.
Mahindra & Mahindra (down 5.21%), Infosys (down 4.32%) and TCS (down 3.56%) were major drags.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index dropped 2.16% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slumped 2.33%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 759 shares rose and 3,234 shares fell. A total of 89 shares were unchanged.
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 4.39% to 13.89.
Economy:
India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at 6.2% in the third quarter of FY25, as per the National Statistics Office (NSO) data released on Friday, February 28. The GDP growth rate for Q2 FY25 has been revised upward to 5.6%.
For the full year of 2024-25, the country's economy is estimated to grow by 6.5%.
SEBI Leadership Change:
Tuhin Kanta Pandey has been appointed as the 11th chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a three-year term. The current Finance Secretary will replace Madhabi Puri Buch, who will complete her tenure as SEBI's first woman chairperson on Friday, February 28, 2025.
Numbers to Track:
The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper grew 1.82% to 6.831, compared with the previous close of 6.818.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 87.4000 compared with its close of 87.1800 during the previous trading session.
MCX Gold futures for 4 April 2025 settlement shed 0.54% to Rs 84,745.
The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.03% to 107.32.
The United States 10-year bond yield shed 0.84% to 4.251.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2025 settlement added 85 cents or 1.15% to $73.19 a barrel.
Global Market:
US Dow Jones index futures were up 144 points, indicating a strong opening in the US stocks today.
Most European stocks declined on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose tariffs on the European Union.
French inflation cooled to 0.8% in February, according to preliminary figures from the country's statistics agency, Insee. German retail sales rose 0.2% in real terms between December and January, preliminary figures showed on Friday
Asian stocks ended lower following Trump's decision to impose an additional 10% tax on Chinese imports, on top of the 10% tariff introduced earlier this month.
Further, Trump also reaffirmed his plan to implement a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, which is set to take effect on March 4.
In Japan, factory output dipped 1.1% in January from the previous month, while retail sales climbed 3.9% year-over-year. Meanwhile, core consumer prices in Tokyo rose 2.2% in February.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, dragged down by a selloff in chip stocks and signs of a cooling economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.45% to 43,239.50, while the S&P 500 declined 1.59% to end at 5,861.57. The Nasdaq closed 2.78% lower at 18,544.42.
Nvidia shares plunged 8.5% to $120.15, despite strong Q4 earnings that beat expectations. Investors remain wary of shrinking profit margins and rising costs tied to its Blackwell AI chip rollout.
The US economy expanded at a 2.3% annualized rate in Q4 2024, unchanged from initial estimates but slower than Q3's 3.1% growth. For the full year, GDP grew 2.8%, slightly below 2023's 2.9%.
Meanwhile, jobless claims surged unexpectedly, with 242,000 new applications filed last week'up 22,000 from the previous period.
On a brighter note, new orders for US-manufactured capital goods jumped 0.8% in January, following a downwardly revised 0.2% rise in December.
Stocks in Spotlight:
The Nifty IT Index slumped 4.18% to 37,318.30. The index is down 10% in seven consecutive trading sessions.
Tech Mahindra (down 6.44%), Wipro (down 5.43%), Mphasis (down 5.31%), LTIMindtree (down 4.4%), Infosys (down 4.04%), Persistent Systems (down 3.8%), HCL Technologies (down 3.22%), L&T Technology Services (down 2.87%) and Coforge (down 2.58%) slumped.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) slipped 3.72%. The company announced that it had extended its partnership with DNB Bank ASA for an additional five years to power next-generation banking innovation
Coal India rose 1.44% after the company said it will impose an additional charge of Rs 300 per tonne across Northern Coalfields mines. The decision, it added, is expected to generate additional revenue of around Rs 3877.50 crore.
Tata Power Company slipped 1.22%. The company announced that its subsidiary, TP Solar, has secured a contract worth Rs 632 crore from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for the supply of 292.5 MWp of domestic content requirement (DCR) solar modules.
Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) dropped 5%. The company has announced that it has received a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from Central Railway for a project valued at Rs 135.66 crore.
Angel One fell 1.33%. The company after the company reported a data leakage incident involving unauthorized access to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources. Angel One in a regulatory filing stated that it received alerts from its dark-web monitoring partner on 27 February 2025, indicating potential unauthorized access to client data. Upon investigation, the company confirmed that certain AWS resources had been compromised.
Transrail Lighting jumps 5.6% on securing new orders worth Rs 2,752 crore, primarily from T&D business.
Narmada Gelatines rallied 3.19%. The company said that its board has approved the appointment of Arun Jaiswal as a chief financial officer (CFO) and key managerial personnel (KMP) with effect from 15 March 2025.
KSB rose 1.30% after the company's consolidated net profit surged 33.15% to Rs 73.1 crore on 20.54% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 726.4 crore in Q4 CY24 over Q4 CY23.
Anupam Rasayan India advanced 0.80% after the company has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Elementium Materials Inc., a U.S.-based Battery Electrolyte Company, for the supply of chemicals for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Solar Industries India added 0.26%. The company said that the company and its subsidiary have received export orders worth Rs 2,150 crore for supply of defence products.
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