Sensex Today: The benchmarks broke their 6-day winning run when a weak Q1FY24 report from IT bellwether Infosys caused a loss in IT stocks. Aside from that, profit bookings at Reliance Industries, HUL and private banks weighed on sentiment. Investors lost nearly Rs 2 trillion in wealth today.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 888 points, or 1.3 percent, to end the session at 66,684. In intraday trading, it fell more than 1,000 points to a low of 66,534. On the NSE, the Nifty50 closed at 19,745 and fell 234 points, or 1.17 percent. It reached a low of 19,700 during the day.
Shares of Infosys fell as much as 7.7 percent as the company’s sharp downward revision to its growth outlook surprised most brokers. In line with the cut in FY24 revenue guidance (cc) to 1-3.5 percent, brokers have unanimously cut FY24 earnings per share estimates for the company by 2-4 percent, though The Street likely fears an even further downturn, they say.
Apart from that, shares of HCL Tech, HUL, Reliance Industries, Wipro TCS, Tech M, JSW Steel, Ultratech Cement, IndusInd Bank and M&M fell 1 percent to 3.5 percent. On the upside, only eight stocks managed to gain on the Sensex, led by L&T (up 4 percent), NTPC, SBI and Tata Motors.
The BSE MidCap index fell 0.26 percent, while the BSE SmallCap index added 0.13 percent.
Of the sector indices, the Nifty IT index lost 4 percent, followed by the Nifty FMCG index (-1 percent). On the other hand, the Nifty PSU Bank, Media and Auto indices were the only winners, gaining up to 0.5 percent.
Global signals
Asian stocks fell Friday after Tesla and Netflix weighed in on US tech stocks following their earnings reports, while the dollar and government bond yields held gains ahead of an action-packed week that could mark the end of the US tightening cycle.
Shares in Tokyo opened lower on Friday after US high-tech stocks fell on selling in Tesla and Netflix, even as the Dow rose for a ninth consecutive session. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.64 percent, or 208.31 points, to 32,282.21 in early trading, while the broader Topix index lost 0.21 percent, or 4.85 points, to 2,256.05.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell on Thursday, weighed down by declines in Tesla and Netflix after their quarterly results, but the Dow advanced for a ninth consecutive day on the back of gains in Johnson & Johnson after a strong full-year forecast.
