Market Wrap, March 23: SENSEX plummets 1,836 pts, NIFTY50 at 22,512; SMIDs dip 4%, VIX up 17%, Titan Company top loser

The Indian stock market settled with losses on Monday, March 23, as worry increased among investors amid rising geopolitical tensions, crude oil prices and a weakening rupee.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at the 72,696.39 level, crashing 1,836.57 points, or 2.46%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index tanked 601.85 points, or 2.6%, to end at the 22,512.65 level.

During the intraday period, both the SENSEX and NIFTY50 touched lows of 72,558.44 and 22,471.25, respectively.

The benchmark indices posted their worst monthly performance exactly six years after the headline indices clocked their worst monthly performance on record when COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns were announced across the country.

According to exchange data, on Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹5,518.39 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹5,706.23 crore on a net basis.

In March so far, the foreign investors have pulled out ₹88,180 crore from the Indian equities following rising tensions in West Asia, a weakening rupee and elevated crude oil prices.

On the global front, the markets in Asia ended sharply lower on Monday as conflict escalated in the Middle East and entered its fourth week on Monday.

Japan's Nikkei fell 3.36%, China's Shanghai Composite dropped 1.55%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 2.6% and South Korea's KOSPI crashed 5.2%.

Further, the US stocks ended lower on Friday amid surging crude oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.96%, the S&P 500 index dropped 1.51% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged 2.01%.

The market participants will track key macroeconomic data, including provisional manufacturing and services PMI readings from the US, UK, and Japan, as well as consumer sentiment and jobless claims for direction.

Here are the key developments of Tuesday’s session that you need to know

As many as 3,420 stocks traded on the NSE on Tuesday. Out of this, 332 advanced and 3,008 declined, while 80 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is favourable towards declines.

A total of 19 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 962 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 33 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 242 touched their lower circuit bands on Tuesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at ₹413.42 lakh crore by the end of the session.

The volatility index India VIX zoomed 17.17% to close at 26.73 levels.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index ended at 52,717.55 levels, tumbling 3.9%, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 gauge settled 3.94% lower at 15,098.70 levels.

All the sectors ended the session in red, with Nifty Consumer Durables (-5.17%), Nifty Metal (-4.81%), Nifty Realty (-4.74%), Nifty PSU Bank (-4.11%) and Nifty Media (-3.97%) being the top losers.

On Tuesday, 46 stocks declined on the NIFTY50 index, while 4 settled in green.

Titan Company (-6.43%), Shriram Finance (-6.16%), Trent (-5.97%), Jio Financial Services (-5.6%) and HDFC Life Insurance (-5.38%) were the most losing stocks.

Meanwhile, HCL Technologies (1.75%), Power Grid (0.81%) and Tech Mahindra (0.3%) were the only gainers.