New Delhi, April 25 (HS): Today, following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and resulting tensions between India and Pakistan, the domestic stock market saw a significant decline. In the morning session, both the Sensex and Nifty indices dropped over 1.5 percent. However, by the second session, buying activity increased, leading to some recovery. At the end of the trading day, the Sensex closed down 0.74 percent while the Nifty fell by 0.86 percent. Continuous selling was observed across several sectors, including realty, public sector enterprises, and pharmaceuticals, with energy, automobile, metals, banking, capital goods, consumer durables, FMCG, oil and gas, and tech indices also closing weaker. Only the IT sector showed resilience, with the Nifty IT index rising by 0.72 percent.

The broader market faced challenges, with the BSE mid-cap index down by 2.44 percent and the small-cap index declining by 2.56 percent. Investors' wealth saw a steep drop of about ₹8.75 lakh crore, with the BSE market capitalization falling to ₹420.83 lakh crore from ₹429.63 lakh crore the previous trading day. During today's trading session, 4,084 shares were actively traded on the BSE, with 715 shares gaining, while 3,248 shares declined and 121 remained unchanged. On the NSE, 2,569 shares were actively traded, resulting in 341 gaining and 2,228 declining. Among the top 30 Sensex stocks, 7 gained while 23 lost. In the Nifty, 9 stocks ended in the green while 41 were in the red.

The BSE Sensex started the day positively, gaining 28.72 points at 79,830.15. It peaked early in the session, rising to 80,130.66 points within 10 minutes. However, selling pressure quickly took hold, causing the index to plummet before noon by 1,524.85 points, ultimately closing at 78,605.81 points, down 1,195.62 points. The second session saw a rebound, with the index recovering over 600 points, ending at 79,212.53.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty started with a gain of 42.30 points but faced selling pressure, dropping to 23,847.85 points by noon, and ultimately closing at 24,039.35 points, down 207.35 points. Notable gainers among large-cap stocks included SBI Life Insurance (+5.40%) and TCS (+1.36%), while Shriram Finance (-5.95%) and Adani Enterprises (-3.61%) were among the major losers.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar