Markets slump over 1%; Sensex drops over 700 points, Nifty below 16,300; Except metals, all sectors nosedive; Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti top bears

4 Mar 2022 , 09:38 AM

Domestic equity market on Friday had a bleak start amid weak global ciues wherein the broader indices fell in the early trade. The heavy selloff at home was due to weak global cues as appetite for equities soured after news broke out regarding Ukraine nuclear plant fire. Also, investors turned cautious as the war and surge in crude has completely transformed the economic market expectations worlwide.

At around 9:30 AM, the benchmark BSE Sensex cracked 723 points or 1.3% to 54,379; while the broader NSE Nifty fell 223 points or 1.35% to 16,274.85. Except metals, all other sectoral indices are trading in the red with auto, bank, IT, pharma, realty indices down 1% each.

    

Hindalco (+1.3%), Tata Steel (+0.9%), BPCL (+0.4%) followed by Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, Titan, Axis Bank, Wipro, Bajaj Finance shedding between 5-2% on NSE.

Banking, Auto, IT stocks were the worst hit. On NSE, the Banking index slipped near 600 points, while the IT and Auto index dropped 400 and 215 points respectively. However, the metals logged some buying sentiments from investors to trade marginallyhigher and only gainer among other sectoral indices on Nifty. Other sectoral indices were in red with a downside ranging from 0.5-2.5%.

Also, Vodafone Idea stocks in focus today as the board of directors of telecom operator has approved fund raising of Rs4,500 crore on a preferential basis, through its promoters.  

Meanwhile, Asian stocks witnessed massive bloodbath as oil prices jumped after a report of a nuclear power plant on fire amid ongoing battle between Russia and Ukraine which sank sentiments of investors as well.

Overnight, the S&P 500 shed 1.6% and Nasdaq loses over 1.5% as Asian markets opened in the red led by the Japanese ‘Nikkei’ which was trading lower by over 550 points in early trade as fresh geopolitical concerns in Ukraine saw weakness persist in Asian markets.