SENSEX falls over 500 points, NIFTY50 below 25,250; Infosys, ICICI Bank among top drags

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading sharply lower on Friday, January 30, mirroring weak trend in other Asian markets. The SENSEX fell as much as 625 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 25,224 dragged down by losses in index heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services.

As of 9:31 am, the SENSEX was down 500 points at 82,065 and NIFTY50 index dropped 179 points to 25,242.

Asian markets were trading lower following a mixed trend overnight in the US markets after US President Donald Trump endorsed a bipartisan deal to avert a fresh government shutdown and said he has decided who he will nominate to lead the Federal Reserve, news agency Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.41%, China's Shanghai Composite declined 1.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.88% and Thailand's SET fell 0.5%.

The US markets ended mixed for the third consecutive session as the post-earnings outlook on AI-related stocks concerned investors. The NASDAQ and S&P500 slipped by 0.5% and 0.1%, while the Dow Jones edged 0.1% higher on Thursday.

Sectoral landscape

Selling pressure was broad-based as ten of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the NIFTY Metal index's 3.8% fall. NIFTY IT, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Oil & Gas, Bank and Financial Services indices also fell between 03%-1%.

On the flipside, NIFTY Pharma, FMCG, Realty and Consumer Durables indices were trading higher.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.4% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index declined 0.24%.

Among the individual shares, Syrma SGS Technology shares rose as much as 7% to hit an intraday high of ₹775 after its net profit surged 108% to ₹110 crore in the third quarter of current financial year and its revenue jumped 43% to ₹1,274 crore.

NIFTY50 top gainers and losers

Hindalco was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 4.4% to ₹979 on account of profit boking after a stellar run in the past couple of trading sessions.

Tata Steel JSW Steel, Infosys, Coal India, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Tech Mahindra also fell between 1.2%-3.1%.

On the flipside, Nestle India, Apollo Hospitals, Tata Consumer Products, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were among the top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,543 shares were declining while 1,197 were advancing on the BSE.