Sensex cracks 1,048 pts; Nifty settles at 25,471 as broad based selling hits markets; metals, IT among top drags

Indian equity benchmarks extended their sharp fall on Friday as selling pressure intensified across sectors. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack tumbled 1,048.16 points or 1.25 per cent to close at 82,626.76 and the NSE Nifty50 index tanked 336.10 points or 1.30 per cent to settle at 25,471.10.

The weakness was not limited to the benchmark indices. Broader markets also came under pressure, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 falling 1.71 per cent and 1.79 per cent, respectively.

Heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), Eternal, Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Tata Steel, Titan and ITC were among the key drags on the indices, pulling the benchmarks lower.

On the sectoral front, all NSE indices traded in the red, underscoring the broad-based nature of the selloff. Nifty Metal emerged as the worst-performing index, plunging 3.31 per cent during the session.

On metals, Kranthi Bathini, Equity Strategist at WealthMills Securities, said the sector has witnessed a sharp upmove in the recent past and saw profit booking today, along with a knee-jerk reaction in domestic benchmarks.

Apart from metals, other major sectors contributing to the decline included IT, FMCG, consumer durables, realty, energy, banking and financial services, reflecting weakness across cyclical as well as defensive pockets.

Market participants attributed the sharp correction in IT stocks to rising concerns over artificial intelligence (AI)-led technological disruption and the resulting uncertainty around traditional business models.

“The IT sector is going through a massive shakeout. The race to build better AI agentic agents and stronger application layers could create significant disruption not just within the sector, but also across the domains it operates in and the end-user industries it serves,” Mayuresh Joshi, Head of Equity Research at William O’Neil India, noted.

“I believe a major disruptor is at play. One should stay on the sidelines and watch,” he added.

“Now, it’s high time for Indian IT companies to adopt the change and transform their business models in line with the disruption taking place in the technology world. Companies which adopt new technologies and changes — and how quickly they can transform their business models — are expected to sustain. The remaining companies are going to face challenging times ahead,” Bathini stated.