New Delhi, 24 April (H.S.):

India’s domestic equity markets ended sharply weaker for the third consecutive day on Friday, shedding a massive ₹4.9 lakh crore in investor wealth amid broad‑based selling pressure. Both the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty snapped their intra‑day recoveries to close firmly in the red, extending the recent string of losses.

Market trading opened on a weak note, with the Sensex starting at 77,483.80, down 180.20 points, and the Nifty at 24,100.55, down 72.50 points. Soon after the opening bell, aggressive buying briefly pushed the Sensex up by over 225 points to 77,710.82 and the Nifty by about 105 points to 24,206, both entering the green zone. However, the gains were short‑lived as renewed selling pressure pulled both indices back into negative territory.

By the afternoon, continuous selling had dragged the Sensex down 1,306.95 points from its intraday high to 76,403.87, before a late‑session buying wave trimmed the losses. The index finally closed 999.79 points lower, or 1.29 percent, at 76,664.21. Similarly, the Nifty plunged 392.35 points from its mid‑day peak to 23,813.65, but clawed back 84.30 points to shut 275.10 points lower, or 1.14 percent, at 23,897.95.

All sectoral indices ended in the red as selling spread across the board. The Nifty IT index recorded the steepest fall, tumbling 5.29 percent due to heavy liquidation in software counters. Automobiles, capital goods, consumer durables, FMCG, healthcare, metals, oil & gas, public‑sector enterprises, and the broader tech index also closed lower, reflecting a risk‑averse mood.

The broader market mirrored the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap index slipping 0.96 percent and the Nifty Smallcap index down 0.87 percent. On the NSE, 2,967 stocks traded, of which only 667 advanced while 2,300 ended lower, underscoring the lopsided selling pressure.

Among Sensex components, just 5 out of 30 shares closed higher, while 25 slipped; on the Nifty 50, 12 advanced and 38 declined.

The sharp correction took a heavy toll on market capitalisation. The combined market cap of BSE‑listed companies fell from ₹466.40 lakh crore at Thursday’s close to ₹461.50 lakh crore (provisional) by Friday’s end, wiping out approximately ₹4.9 lakh crore in investor wealth.

Top Sensex gainers included Coal India (+1.19 percent), Trent Limited (+1.08 percent), Nestlé (+0.77 percent), Hindalco Industries (+0.67 percent), and State Bank of India (+0.63 percent).

On the losing side, major market cap‑heavyweights dragged the indices lower: Infosys slumped 6.93 percent, HCL Technologies fell 5.82 percent, Tata Consultancy Services lost 4.95 percent, Tech Mahindra declined 4.43 percent, and Sun Pharmaceutical dropped 3.55 percent, making them the top five losers on the Nifty 50.

Analysts attributed the sell‑off to rising geopolitical tensions, higher crude prices, and continued foreign‑institution‑investor (FII) outflows, which have kept sentiment fragile across Dalal Street.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar