Stock market tumbled on Tuesday, declining over 1% as investor sentiment took a hit from multiple global and domestic triggers.
Sensex closed below the 76,000 mark for the first time in seven months. The Nifty index ended near 23,000, weighed down by disappointing earnings and growing uncertainty over President Trump’s potential trade policies.
At close, the Sensex fell by 1.60%, losing 1235 points to settle at 75838.36. This level was last seen on 6 June 2024. Nifty declined by 1.37%, or 320.1 points, ending at 23024.65.
Sensex traded within a range of 77,337.36 to 75,641.87 while Nifty reached a peak of 23,426.3 and a low of 22,976.85.
Nifty Midcap 50 closed down by 2.19% lagging behind the Nifty 50. Small-cap stocks underperformed as the Nifty Small Cap 100, finished at 17,864.65, down by 408.15 points, or 2.28% lower.
On Nifty, the index included Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (2.04%), Tata Consumer (1.23%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (1.05%), JSW Steel (0.83%), and Shriram Finance (0.70%).
On the losing side were Trent (5.80%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (3.70%), NTPC (3.50%), ICICI Bank (2.98%), and State Bank of India (2.59%).
Among the sectors, Nifty Realty and Consumer Durables were the worst performers, plunging over 4%. Nifty PSU Bank and Auto followed closely, down 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively.
Other notable losers included Nifty Bankex and Private Bank, both down by 1.5%, while Nifty Pharma and Metal shed 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively.
Bank Nifty closed at 49,350.8, with an intraday high of 49,543.15 and a low of 48,430.95.
Among the key individual performers, Zomato was down by 10.16%. Its shares tumbled 16% in two days after it reported a 57% YoY fall in net profit at Rs 59 crore for the October-December quarter.
Shares of Swiggy were down by 8.01% after its rival Zomato posted lower-than-expected Q3 results.
Shares of Apollo Hospitals were up by 2.13% after Kotak Institutional Equities upgraded the stock from ‘Add’ to ‘Buy’.
Mankind Pharma’s shares slipped 5%, snapping its two-day gaining streak on the bourses. The development comes after Macquarie downgraded Mankind Pharma to “Underperform”.
As the quarterly earnings season progresses, the market is still awaiting signs of a recovery in corporate performance.
Investors fear that Trump’s inaugural speech to safeguard America’s interest could hurt the economic prospects of many countries going ahead.