Witnessing its biggest single-day fall in 10 months, Indian stock market benchmark Sensex ended with a solid loss of 2,227 points, or 2.95 percent, at 73,137.90 on April 7 on across-the-board selling due to growing fears over the economic fallout of global trade war triggered by Donald Trump's tariff policies.
The Nifty 50 closed at 22,161.60, down 742.85 points, or 3.24 percent. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed with losses of 3.46 percent and 4.13 percent, respectively.
The overall market capitalisation of the BSE-listed firms dropped to ₹389 lakh crore from over ₹403 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors poorer by ₹14 lakh crore in a single session.
Here are the key highlights of the day:
" The market tumbled on the fear that the carnage over high US tariffs, and the retaliation by other countries, may kickstart a trade war," Vinod Nair of Geojit Investments Limited observed.
"Though the overall impact on India may be limited when compared with other countries, investors are advised to play cautiously during this fray. The focus will be on pure-play domestic themes, where the rebound is likely to be fair when the dust settles," Nair said.
As many as 47 stocks ended in the red in the Nifty 50 index, among which Trent (down 14.70 percent), JSW Steel (down 7.53 percent) and Tata Steel (down 7.26 percent) ended as the top losers. One stock- Apollo Hospitals Enterprise - ended flat.
Shares of Hindustan Unilever (up 0.24 percent) and Zomato (up 0.22 percent) were the two stocks that ended in the green in the Nifty 50 index on Monday.
Nifty Metal (down 6.75 percent) ended as the biggest loser among sectoral indices, followed by Nifty Realty (down 5.69 percent).
Media (down 3.94 percent), Auto (down 3.78 percent), Private Bank (down 3.47 percent), PSU Bank (down 2.84 percent), Pharma (down 2.75 perent) and IT (down 2.51 percent) ended with deep losses.
As many as 775 stocks, including TCS, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Titan and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on the BSE.
Seven Nifty 50 stocks - Trent, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Tata Motors, L&T, Shriram Finance and Adani Enterprises- cracked more than 5 per cent on Monday.
According to provisional data, 2,640 stocks declined on the NSE on Monday, while 327 advanced and 69 remained unchanged.
According to Ajit Mishraof Religare Broking, a decisive close below the 21,700 level on the Nifty could pave the way for further downside toward 21,300.
"Given the prevailing volatility, traders are advised to adopt a hedged approach and manage position sizes cautiously until we see some stability," said Mishra.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
