SENSEX drops nearly 600 pts, NIFTY 50 opens at 23,462 amid West Asia crisis; L&T, HDFC Bank fall 2%

At the opening bell, the BSE SENSEX index dropped 590.2 points or 0.77% to 75,444.22 points, compared to the previous market close level of 76,034.42 points, according to the exchange data.

The NSE NIFTY 50 index opened 176.65 points or 0.74% lower at 23,462.50 points on Friday, compared to 23,639.15 points at the previous stock market close, as per the official data.

During the early trading session, the NIFTY 50 was trading 0.66% lower at 23,483.75 points as of 9:31 a.m., compared to the previous market close levels. Along with Nifty, the BSE SENSEX was down 0.68% at 75,519.05 points as of 9:33 a.m. on Friday.

Gainers on stock market today

As per the early trading hours on NSE, company stocks like Nestle India (up 1.3%), Hindustan Unilever (up 1.25%), Power Grid Corp (up 0.72%), Tata Consumer Products (up 0.64%), ITC (up 0.44%), Bharti Airtel (up 0.38%), Sun Pharmaceutical (up 0.36%), Reliance Industries (up 0.14%); Coal India (up 0.6%), and NTPC (up 0.29%) on March 13.

While stocks like Hindalco (down 3.67%), L&T (down 2.76%), Tata Steel (down 2.68%), JSW Steel (down 2.35%), IndiGo or InterGlobe Aviation stock (down 2.09%), Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (down 2.02%), Bharat Electronics or BEL (down 1.96%) , are among others on Friday.

Only 10 stocks were trading in the green zone, while others on the NIFTY 50 index were down in the red in early market.

On BSE, six stocks were trading in the green, while the remaining 24 stocks were in the red zone due to the pressure on the Indian stock market over the rebounding geopolitical tensions.

Buzzing stocks today

ACME Solar shares were up 6.9% in the early trading hours on Friday, continuing its rally on the stock market after an order book update on Thursday, the stock has gained over 12% in the last five market sessions.

Syngene International stock was trading 5.47% higher in the early session, the stock has risen 6.84% in the last five trading session.

NTPC Green Energy share price was up nearly 4% in the early market. The renewable energy stock has gained 14.57% in the last one week period on the Indian stock market.

Mid-cap and small-cap stocks snapshot

The NIFTY MIDCAP 100 index was trading 1.78% lower at 55,250.70 points as of 10:06 a.m., compared to 56,253.75 points at the previous market close, as per the NSE data.

NTPC Green, Swiggy, Adani Total Gas, Muthoot Finance were among other stocks which were top gainers in the trading session on Friday. While others like National Aluminium Co., Blue Star, and Polycab were among other shares which were among the losers on March 13.

On the small-cap front, NIFTY SMALLCAP 100 index was down 2.09% to 15,964.05 points, compared to 16,305.25 points in the previous market close, according to the exchange data.

IFCI, Firstcry, CESC, Afcons, were among other gainers, while PG Electroplast, Wockhardt, and Laurus Labs were among others which were lagging during Friday's market session.