Stock Market: Sensex Plunges Over 800 Points, Nifty Holds 15,500 Amid Slowdown Fears; RIL Slips 8%

Stock update: On the BSE, Reliance was the top loser, down 8.06 per cent. Titan, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy’s, Airtel, L&T, M&M, NTPC, Infosys, and others were on the red

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Friday opened with sharp cuts amid growing fears of an economic slowdown.

At 10.15 am, the BSE Sensex declined 842 points to 52,175, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 15,525, down 254 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Reliance was the top loser, down 8.06 per cent. Titan, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy’s, Airtel, L&T, M&M, NTPC, Infosys, and others were on the red. On the flipside, Asian Paint was the lead gainer, up 1.43 per cent. ITC, Bajaj Finserv, HUL, Nestle, Axis Bank, and HDFC were the only constituents trading in the positive zone.

The broader markets also started on a negative note with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices slumped by up to 1.3 per cent.

On NSE, 13 out of the 15 sector gauges were trading in the red. Sectorwise, Nifty bank, financials, auto, pharma and consumer durables were the weakest of all. While energy and realty pockets were in green.

The overall market breadth was slightly positive as 1,084 shares were advancing, while 1,061 were declining on the BSE.

In their previous session on Thursday, Sensex had declined 150 points (0.28 per cent) to close at 53,027, while Nifty had moved 51 points (0.32 per cent) lower to settle at 15,799.

Asian stocks made a shaky start as investors turned increasingly nervous about the global economic outlook. Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a gap-down start for the domestic indices.

Overnight, Wall Street recorded a 21 per cent fall in the first six months of this year — the worst since 1970.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 5 paise to a record low of 79.11 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday as persistent foreign funds outflows weighed on investor sentiments.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened on a weak note at 78.99 against the American dollar, then lost ground to quote at 79.11, its all-time low level, registering a fall of 5 paise from the last close.

On Thursday, the rupee fell 3 paise to close at a fresh lifetime low of 79.06 against the US dollar.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.05 per cent to $109.09 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,138.05 crore, as per stock exchange data.