Market Wrap, May 9: SENSEX falls 880 points amid Indo-Pak tensions, NIFTY50 ends at 24,008; defence stocks shine

The S&P BSE SENSEX ended Friday's session at 79,454.47, down 880.34 points, or 1.10%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index settled at 24,008, down 265.80 points, or 1.10%.

The market breadth was in favour of declines as out of 2,887 stocks being traded on the NSE, 1,738 stocks declined, and 1,065 advanced, while 84 scrips remained unchanged.

Further, as many as 16 stocks on the NSE hit their 52-week highs, while 113 stocks touched their one-year lows. Furthermore, 28 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 110 stocks touched their lower circuit limits.

India VIX, the volatility index, cooled off from the day's high to settle at 21.63 levels, up nearly 3%.

Defence stocks in heavy demand

Defence stocks were the stocks of the day following the geopolitical tensions. The NIFTY INDIA DEFENCE index ended 3.04% higher at 7,088.95 levels.

Out of 18 constituents, 17 gained, and one ended in the red.

On the flip side, ICICI Bank (down over 3%) was the biggest loser.

The market capitalisation of the BSE-listed companies slipped by ₹2.1 lakh crore to ₹416.40 lakh crore on the BSE.

Broader Market

The mid- and small-cap indices outperformed the frontline indices today. The BSE MidCap index ended at 42,111.50, down 42.97 points, or 0.10%, while the BSE SmallCap index ended at 46,741.95, down 140.78 points, or 0.30%.

Buzzing Stocks

The company had posted a PAT of ₹4,396 crore for the year-ago period, L&T said in a filing to BSE.

Revenue from operations increased to ₹74,392.28 crore over ₹67,078.68 crore in the year-ago period, the filing said.

L&T President, Whole-time Director and Chief Financial Officer R. Shankar Raman told reporters that FY25 has been an outstanding year for the company and L&T exceeded most of the financial goals that it set for itself during the year.

Total income stood at ₹14,049 crore for the quarter under review, up 22.46% from ₹11,472 crore a year back.

EBITDA advanced 29.7% to ₹1,438 crore in the reporting quarter as against ₹1,109 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

The net interest income for the bank largely remained flat at ₹9,514 crore in Q4 Q4 FY25 as against ₹9,437 crore in the previous year's similar quarter. This was largely due sharper increase in the interest expenses at 7.5% YoY than the total interest income at 5.1%.

On the global front, South Korea's Kospi and Shanghai's SSE Composite index settled lower, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended in the green.

European markets were trading higher.

US markets ended in positive territory on Thursday.