Sensex Down 1,000 Points, Nifty Ends Week With 1.1% Decline After Investor Sentiment Turns Negative Over War, Weak IT Guidance

The domestic stock market indices on Friday ended the week with a decline of over 1 percent amid renewed uncertainty at the war front, higher crude oil prices, and subdued IT results.

The benchmark Sensex closed at 76,681 with a decline of 1.27 percent, or almost a thousand points, while Nifty ended with a loss of 1.14 percent.

Out of almost 3,400 stocks traded on the National Stock Exchange, over 70 percent (2,429 stocks) ended lower than their previous close.

This is the third consecutive day that the benchmarks have ended lower. While Sensex has lost over 3.2 percent in the last three days, Nifty has fallen over 2.7 percent during the same period.

Friday’s sell-off was led by information technology (IT) stocks, with sector majors slipping up to 7 percent during the trade.

Uneven earnings and weak global sentiment weighed on the stocks, with the Nifty IT index slipping 5.3 percent.

Among the 10 worst-performing stocks in the Nifty 50 pack, the top four were IT majors Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, and HCLTech.

The stock of Infosys fell up to 7.2 percent on the bourses on Friday after announcing a lower-than-expected revenue guidance for FY27.

TCS declined as much as 5.1 percent during the trade. TCS was followed by Tech Mahindra, which also declined up to 5.1 percent. The stock of Wipro fell 2.5 percent.

The Nifty IT index has fallen over 20 percent this year.

With the Iran war affecting India Inc across sectors, all the sectoral indices declined, with Nifty IT being the worst performer (down 5.3 percent), followed by Nifty Media (down 2.82 percent), Nifty Pharma (down 1.77 percent), and Nifty Healthcare (down 1.5 percent).

On the flip side, stocks of Coal India (up almost 1 percent), Trent (up 0.9 percent), and Hindalco (up 0.78 percent) remained among the top gainers.

The rupee on Friday ended the session at 94.253 a dollar, improving from Thursday’s close by 0.16 percent.

As war-induced uncertainty has again gripped the market, experts anticipate a near-term downtrend. Several rating agencies and brokerages have pared their targets for Indian equities, with JPMorgan being the latest to slash its Nifty target by 10 percent.