Equity benchmarks opened sharply lower on Friday, with both the Sensex and the Nifty falling more than 1% in early trade, as heavy selling in information technology stocks weighed on investor sentiment amid weak global cues.
The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 883.40 points, or 1.05%, to 82,791.52 in early deals, while the NSE Nifty fell 262.60 points, or 1.02%, to 25,544.60.
IT stocks under pressure
Technology shares continued to bear the brunt of selling for the second straight session. Heavyweights including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra emerged as the biggest laggards on the Sensex.
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Several other frontline stocks were also trading in the red, including Eternal, Hindustan Unilever, Adani Ports, Trent, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, IndiGo, Larsen & Toubro, UltraTech Cement and NTPC.
Only a handful of stocks managed to stay afloat, with Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel trading higher in an otherwise weak market.
Broader markets mirrored the negative trend. The BSE SmallCap Select Index declined 1.93%, while the MidCap Select Index fell 1.40%.
Global cues and AI concerns weigh
Market participants remained cautious amid continued volatility in global technology stocks and concerns over artificial intelligence-led disruptions.
As noted by The Hindu, V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said the market had entered a turbulent phase that could unsettle investors in the short term. He noted that while the sell-off in AI-linked stocks in the US was expected, the scale and timing of the correction came as a surprise.
“For India, the unwinding of the global AI trade could be positive in the medium term, as Indian markets were not major beneficiaries of last year’s AI-driven rally,” Vijayakumar said. However, he added that the sharp fall in IT stocks — the second-largest profit contributor to corporate India — is currently rattling domestic markets, with the full impact yet to be assessed.
Asian markets, Wall Street end lower
Asian equities were largely weak, with benchmarks in Hong Kong, Japan and Shanghai trading lower, while South Korea’s Kospi was marginally higher.
Overnight, US markets closed sharply lower. According to Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities, Wall Street indices fell steeply on Thursday as investors intensified their sell-off in technology stocks amid worries about AI disrupting existing business models.
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Other market indicators
Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors were net buyers of equities worth â‚ą108.42 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth â‚ą276.85 crore.
In the commodities market, Brent crude slipped 0.16% to $67.41 per barrel.
On Thursday, the Sensex had already declined 558.72 points to close at 83,674.92, while the Nifty fell 146.65 points to settle at 25,807.20.
