New Delhi, 12 February (H.S.): Domestic stock markets closed lower on Thursday amid weak global cues and heavy selling in IT shares, with the Sensex declining 558.72 points or 0.66% to end at 83,674.92 and the Nifty 50 slipping 146.65 points or 0.57% to 25,807.20.

The session opened weakly, with the Sensex starting at 83,968.43 (down 265.21 points) and the Nifty at 25,906.70 (down 47.15 points); despite intermittent buying attempts, persistent selling dominated, pushing the Sensex to an intraday low of 83,516.67 before partial recovery.

IT stocks led the rout, with Nifty IT index crashing 5.51%—its steepest intraday drop since March 23, 2020—as Tech Mahindra fell 5.98%, Infosys 5.84%, TCS 4.78%, HCL Tech 4.87%, and Wipro 4.67%, forming the top losers. Oil & gas, media, realty, banking, auto, FMCG, healthcare, metals, PSEs, and tech indices also declined, while consumer durables and capital goods saw buying.

Broader markets mirrored the weakness: BSE Midcap down 0.47% and Smallcap 0.64%. BSE trading saw 4,368 active stocks (1,680 advances, 2,527 declines, 161 unchanged); NSE had 2,911 actives (1,002 up, 1,909 down). Sensex's 30 stocks split 13 up/17 down; Nifty 50 had 21 gains/29 losses.

Market capitalization of BSE-listed firms shrank to ₹472.30 lakh crore (provisional) from ₹474.99 lakh crore Wednesday, erasing ₹2.69 lakh crore in investor wealth.

Top gainers included Bajaj Finance (3.11%), Shriram Finance (2.46%), Eicher Motors (2.21%), ICICI Bank (1.70%), and Trent (1.58%).

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar