Bears Back in Action, Sensex Tumbles 720 Pts, Nifty Down 200 Pts

Mumbai: The Indian benchmark indices broke its two-day run to end lower on Friday, the third trading day of 2025. The benchmark BSE Sensex lost 720.60 points or 0.90 per cent to close at 79,223.11, while the broader Nifty 50 index closed at 24,004.75, lower by 183.90 points or 0.76 per cent as investors sold banking and IT stocks ahead of the earnings season starting next week. The market capitalization of all listed companies on the BSE decreased by Rs 2.28 lakh crore to Rs 449.72 lakh crore.

On the Nifty 50, 32 stocks declined while 18 ended in green while only 13 out of the 30 Sensex stocks were in the green.

On a weekly basis, the BSE benchmark jumped 524.04 points or 0.66 per cent, and the Nifty climbed 191.35 points or 0.80 per cent.

Prashanth Tapse, senior vice-president (research) Mehta Equities said, "Despite the short recovery in the past two sessions, markets lost the momentum as there is still a lot of pessimism due to slowing growth, higher domestic valuations, foreign fund outflows and uncertainty over US trade policies post Trump's resumption as the country's president. Hence, markets may see bouts of correction and investors will continue to maintain caution while keeping an eye on global developments."

Among the Sensex stocks, Zomato Ltd fell the most by 4.27 per cent, trading at Rs 273.40. The second biggest loser was HDFC Bank that fell 2.46 per cent to Rs 1749.30, Tech Mahindra Ltd fell by 2.23 per cent at Rs 1,689, Adani Ports down 2.15 per cent to Rs 1199.25.

Top gainers were Tata Motors up 3.33 per cent trading at Rs 790.40, Titan up 1.70 per cent trading at Rs 3449.20, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle and Reliance.

The BSE midcap gauge fell 0.33 per cent, and smallcap index dipped 0.02 per cent. Among sectoral indices, BSE Focused IT declined 1.42 per cent, IT (1.31 per cent), Teck (1.13 per cent), banks (1.07 per cent), capital goods (1.06 per cent) and financial services (0.87 per cent). BSE energy, telecommunication, consumer durables, utilities, metal and oil and gas were the gainers. In the previous session, the BSE benchmark jumped 1,436.30 points or 1.83 per cent -- its best single-day gain in more than a month -- to settle at 79,943.71. The Nifty had surged 445.75 points or 1.88 per cent to 24,188.65.

Sameet Chavan, Head Research, Technical and Derivative - Angel One said, "We advise traders not to get carried away with in-between reliefs and should ideally avoid leveraged positions. This view will get negated if NIFTY breaks beyond the sturdy wall of 24500 – 24800. Then markets would certainly gear up for the much-awaited pre-budget rally. Before this, 24200 – 24300 is seen as immediate resistance for the index."