Market Wrap, Jan 8: SENSEX crashes 780 pts, NIFTY50 below 25,900; SMIDs lose 2%, NSE-listed cos mcap erodes ₹8 lakh crore

The Indian equity market closed in the red for the fourth session on Thursday, January 8, as investor sentiment was weighed down by weak global cues, trade-related uncertainties and continued foreign fund outflows. Losses in metal, IT, and oil & gas stocks further dragged down the benchmark indices.

US President Donald Trump has backed a sanctions bill that could impose 500% tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, giving the White House leverage against countries like China and India to stop them from purchasing cheap oil from Moscow, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Metal stocks declined on Thursday, partly on account of profit-booking in recent outperformers such as Hindustan Copper, Hindustan Zinc (HZL), NALCO, Vedanta and Hindalco. The selling came after a sharp rally in industrial metals, including copper and silver.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,527.71 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,889.32 crore on a net basis.

Globally, almost all the Asian shares, except for South Korea’s Kospi (0.03%), settled lower as the record-breaking rally lost steam, with Japan's Nikkei falling 1.33%, China's Shanghai Composite losing 0.07%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declining 1.23% and Thailand's SET Composite ending 2.17% lower.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 broke its four-day winning streak to register its first loss of 2026. The S&P 500 declined 0.3%, and the Dow Jones fell 0.94%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.16%.

Some of the market’s sharpest drops hit industries that President Donald Trump targeted with criticism on his social media network.

Here are the key developments of Thursday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,247 stocks traded on the NSE on Thursday. Out of this, 545 advanced and 2,625 stocks declined, while 77 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 43 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 177 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 46 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 95 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹470.1 lakh crore at the close of the session, losing ₹7.71 lakh crore.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 10.60 levels, soaring 6.53%.

On the Nifty Midcap 100 index, about 95 stocks closed in the red, while nearly 89 stocks on the Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined.

Dragged by BHEL (-8.78%), Hitachi Energy India (-6.1%) and NALCO (-5.57%), the Nifty Midcap 100 index tanked 1.96% to end at 60,222.55.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index slipped 1.99% to close at 17,601.05, weighed down by Signatureglobal India (-8.18%), Swan Corp (-5.59%) and Jupiter Waggons (-5.51%).

All the sectoral gauges ended in red, with Nifty Metal taking the lead, plunging 3.4%. Nifty Oil & Gas (-2.84%), Nifty PSU Bank (-2.08%), Nifty IT (-1.99%), Nifty Realty (-1.71%) and Nifty Pharma (-1.38%) were the other losers.

On the NIFTY50, 45 stocks ended in the red, while only 4 advanced and one remained unchanged by the end of the session on Thursday.

Hindalco Industries was the biggest laggard, declining 3.78%, followed by Jio Financial Services (-3.57%), Wipro and ONGC, each falling 3.29%, and Tech Mahindra (-3.03%).

On the other side, Eternal (0.78%), SBI Life Insurance (0.53%), ICICI Bank (0.5%) and Bajaj Finance (0.13%) were the only gainers on the 50-share index.