Market wrap for March 12: NIFTY50 ends below 23,700, SENSEX falls 829 pts; Chemicals, Media and Metals top sectoral gainers

Indian benchmark indices continued to their correction for the second consecutive session as crude oil prices continued to rise amid escalating war tensions. Besides, the Trump administration’s new trade probe raised uncertainty about US trade tariffs.

The Trump administration has opened a new trade investigation into manufacturing in foreign countries; an effort that comes after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's previous use of tariffs by declaring an economic emergency.

Additionally, persistent fund outflows by the foreign investors kept the trading sentiments subdued. The foreign institutional investors have net sold equities worth ₹6,267.31 crore on Wednesday’s session.

The SENSEX fell 829 points or 1% down on Thursday at 76,034, after oscillating between 75,781 to 76,681. The 24 stocks in the index closed in red while 6 ended in green. While the NIFTY50 closed 227 points or 0.97% lower on Thursday after a volatile trade in the range of 23,556 to 23,833. 40 stocks out of the NIFTY50 closed in red while 10 ended in green on Thursday.

On the broader market front, the NIFTY small-cap 100 index fell 0.6% at 16,305 levels, recouping over 200 points from the intraday low levels of 16,097. Similarly, the NIFTY mid-cap 100 index also outperformed the NIFTY50 as it closed at 56,253, 0.3% lower by recouping more than 800 points from the intraday low of 55,378.

On the sectoral front, the NIFTY Chemicals, Oil & gas, metals and media were the only gainers with up to 1% gains. While NIFTY auto, FMCG, Realty, and Private bank were the top losers with up to 3% losses for the day.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 5.07%, NTPC up by 2.83%, JIO Financial Services up by 1.47%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.44% and Adani Enterprises up by 1.30%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 4.32%, Eicher Motors down by 3.92%, Maruti Suzuki down by 3.72%, Bajaj Finance down by 3.54% and Tata Motors Passenger down by 3.31% were the top losers.