Black Friday on D-Street, Sensex nosedives 1,939 points

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It was a bloodbath on D-Street as bears gripped the markets owing to global selling pressures amid fears of rising inflation and record-high treasury yields earlier in the day.

At close, Sensex tanked 1,939 points or 3.80% to 49,099 while the Nifty50 ended days to trade at 14, 529 losing 568 points or 3.76%. It has been the worst market fall since May 18, 2020.

In the intra-day trade, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 2,149 points while the Nifty50 index slumped 629 points.

All 30 stocks on the Sensex ended in the red. ONGC, M&M, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank & Kotak Mahindra Bank all fell around 6%.

Sectorally all indices closed in red with Nifty Bank losing close to 5%, Nifty Auto was down 3.12%. While Nifty IT & Nifty Metal fell around 2.5%.

Commenting on the bloodbath Mayuresh Joshi, Head of Equity Research of William O’Neil said, “markets witnessed huge and brutal selloff today, primarily because of the huge spike in US bond yields and the selloff in the US market. The Asian markets were expected to close in the red. But I think the selloff that we witnessed specifically in the last couple of hours, was very brutal. So, I think it was both a combination in terms of bond yields moving higher, and the fear that if the FII start withdrawing money from the Indian market, that it will lead to a cyclicality of events in terms of a huge selloff happening in the next few days as well.”

In the broader markets, small-cap stocks held their ground relatively better as the S&P BSE SmallCap index settled only 0.7% down. The S&P BSE MidCap index, on the other hand, ended 1.75% lower.

“Domestic markets tumbled in line with global trend triggered by a sharp rise in bond yields. Increasing geopolitical tension between the US and Syria aggravated the selling. Q3 GDP data which is to be released today also added volatility in the Indian market. Although negative, mid and small caps outperformed their larger indices showing investor confidence. The market will gain momentum as the global market is expected to stabilise supported by maintaining accommodative monetary policy and a growing economy,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses closed with heavy losses.

Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading with losses in mid-session deals.

Analysts said that rising bond yields seem to have eroded investor interest in riskier equities, adding the bond market cues often reflect in equity markets.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.16% lower at USD 65.34 per barrel.