Market Wrap, July 24: NIFTY50, SENSEX fall 0.6%; IEX share price posts worst single-day loss

Indian benchmark indices resumed back to correction after a day pause on Wednesday. The NIFTY50 closed over 150 points lower and erased more than 540 points on Thursday. The losses continued on Indian markets despite firm cues from global markets as investors sought more clues on the progress of the trade deal between the US and India following the US President’s announcement of a trade deal with Japan and the Philippines.

Besides, traders reacted to Q1 earnings results of Infosys, Dr Reddy's Labs, Coforge and Tata Consumer Products, among others. The persistent selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) weighed on the trading sentiments. The FIIs were the net sellers on yesterday’s trade, offloading Rs 4,209.11 crore worth of equities.

Meanwhile, India’s flash PMI data showed that operating conditions across India's private sector continued to improve in the month of July. The HSBC Flash India Manufacturing PMI index rose from 58.4 in June to 59.2 in July, its highest reading in close to 17-and-a-half years and indicative of a robust improvement in the health of the manufacturing industry

Apart from the key index participants, IEX was a major mishap in today's market. The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) share price plunged as much as 29% after CERC approved the market coupling mechanism from January 1 2026. The market coupling mechanism is expected to hit the monopolistic position of IEX in the industry, dampening its revenue and impacting its profitability. The shares closed 27% down at ₹135 apiece.

On the benchmark indices front, the NIFTY50 closed 157 points lower at the 25,062 level. The index had 34 stocks in red and 16 in green. Similarly, the SENSEX closed 542 points lower at the 82,184 level, down by 542 points.

Among the gaining stocks from the NIFTY50 index. Eternal (+3.4%), Dr Reddys (+1.7%), Tata Motors (+1.6%), Tata Consumer (+0.9%) were the top five gainers. While Nestle India (-5.5%), Trent (-3.9%), Tech Mahindra (-3.2%) and Shriram Finance (-3.1%) were the top losers.

NIFTY midcap 100 closed 0.5% lower at 58,960 in line with the benchmark indices. While NIFTY smallcap 100 index witnessed heavy selling pressure and closed over 1% lower on Thursday at 18,686 levels.