New Delhi, 27 February (H.S.):
India's equity benchmarks plummeted on the week's final trading session, with Sensex diving 1.17 percent and Nifty slumping 1.25 percent amid relentless bearish pressure, erasing nearly ₹4.98 lakh crore in investor wealth.
Opened marginally lower—Sensex at 82,220.48 (down 28.13 points) and Nifty at 25,459.85 (off 36.70)—initial buying evaporated as sellers dominated, exacerbated by stalled US-Iran talks triggering late sell-off; Sensex hit intraday low of 81,159.15 before partial recovery to close at 81,287.19, Nifty at 25,178.65.
Sector-Wide Rout, IT Buckles Trend
Automobile, banking, FMCG, metal, telecom, realty, capital goods, consumer durables, healthcare, oil & gas, PSEs, and tech indices bled, while IT and media eked gains; midcap (-1.14%) and smallcap (-1.10%) mirrored the carnage.BSE market cap shrank to ₹463.51 lakh crore from Thursday's ₹468.49 lakh crore. Of 4,369 active stocks, 1,666 advanced, 2,521 declined, 182 unchanged; NSE's 2,896 saw 975 up, 1,921 down.Sensex: 5 gainers/25 losers; Nifty: 4/46.
Top Gainers: HCL Tech (+1.14%), Trent (+1.13%), Infosys (+0.85%), Apollo Hospitals (+0.60%), Eternal (+0.02%).
Top Losers: Sun Pharma (-2.73%), Bharti Airtel (-2.61%), HDFC Life (-2.55%), M&M (-2.50%), Dr Reddy's (-2.50%).
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
