Stock market crash: Ambuja Cements, Berger Paints, KPIT Tech among 196 stocks that hit 52-week low as NIFTY50 trade below 24,500

NIFTY50 and SENSEX resume their ongoing fall on Friday, March 6. Both benchmark indices declined 1.2% each giving away the gains witnessed in yesterday’s session. The stock market crash comes amid rising conflict between the US, Israel and Iran, continued sell-off by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and weak sentiments in the global markets.

As of 2:45 pm, NIFTY50 is down 314 points or 1.2% to trade at 24,451, with a day low of 24,445. Meanwhile, BSE SENSEX declined 966 points or 1.2% to trade around 79,054. SENSEX hit a day low of 78,907 today.

Why are markets down today?

Investors' sentiments remained weak today as persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middle East has kept crude oil prices elevated as Brent crude oil prices jumped to 20-months high to trade above $86 per barrel. This is negative for the Indian economy as rising crude oil prices could have inflationary pressures on the domestic economy.

Besides this, consistent sell-off by the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) has also dented the investors sentiments. FIIs have offloaded Indian equities worth ₹15,800 crore in just the first three trading days of this month.

Broader market indices like NIFTY Midcap100 (+0.03%) and NIFTY Smallcap100 (+0.3%) have bucked the trend and are trading higher. More than 195 stocks hit their 52-week low today as investors did profit booking amid weak market sentiments.

The volatility index, or India VIX, is up 6.43% to 19.01. NIFTY Chemicals (+0.7%), NIFTY Oil & Gas (+0.6%), NIFTY Metal (+0.5%) were among top gainers, while NIFTY Financial Services (-1.4%), NIFTY Realty (-1.4%), NIFTY PSU Bank (-0.9%) were top sectoral losers.

Prominent stocks at 52-week low today