SENSEX falls over 500 points, NIFTY50 below 24,650; ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank among top drags

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap down opening on Friday, March 6, on the back of subdued global cues and spike in crude oil prices in international markets. The SENSEX fell as much as 523 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,598 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, InterGlobe Aviation and Axis Bank.

As of 9:21 am, the SENSEX was down 411 points at 79,604 and NIFTY50 index dropped 122 points to 24,644.

Most of the Asian markets were trading on a subdued note with Japan's Nikkei rising 0.26%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.2% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1%.

Overnight, US stocks ended lower on Thursday as crude oil price spike to highest level since 2024 because of war in Iran.

Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.61%, S&P 500 index declined 0.56% and tech heavy Nasdaq dropped 0.26%.

The price for a barrel of benchmark US crude shot up 8.5% Thursday to settle at $81.01 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 4.9% to $85.41 per barrel and is likewise near its highest price since 2024.

Back home, eight of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading lower led by the NIFTY Private Bank index's 1% fall. NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Metal, PSU Bank, Realty and Auto indices also fell between 0.2% and 0.8%.

On the flip side, information technology shares were witnessing buying interest as the measure of IT shares surged 1.7%. Select FMCG, oil & gas and pharma stocks were also witnessing buying interest.

Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.54% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.7%.

Among the individual shares, Fractal Analytics shares rose as much as 5.88% to hit an intraday high of ₹802 after it posted a 10.56% increase in its consolidated net profit attributable to owners of the company at ₹102.6 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal year. Its net profit stood at ₹92.8 crore in the year-ago period.

Its revenue from operations climbed 20.81% to ₹854.4 crore in Q3 FY26, compared to ₹707.2 crore in the December quarter of the previous fiscal year.

InterGlobe Aviation was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 2.6% to ₹4,394. ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Max Healthcare, Eicher Motors, HDFC Bank, Ultratech Cement, Coal India and Bajaj Finserv also fell between 1% and 2.2%.

On the other hand, Bharat Electronics, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Tech and Infosys were top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,692 shares were advancing while 962 were declining on the NSE.