Market update: India-Pak escalations tank Sensex by almost 800 points

Indian stock markets opened in the red on Friday and continued to slide in mid-session with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty trading sharply down as tensions between India and Pakistan escalated.

India, as of Friday morning, successfully thwarted Pakistan's attempts to cross the border as well as their drone and missile strikes on key military sites. 

However, this did not stop the slump in the markets that began on Thursday. By late morning, Sensex shed 771 points to 79,566.02 while  Nifty lost 205 points to 24,068.25.

Power Grid, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv, and Bajaj Finance were the major losers in the 30-pack Sensex. 

However, L&T soared 4 per cent in the morning session after it posted a 5 per cent jump in quarterly consolidated profit after tax of ₹5,497 crore. Shares of Tata Group's Titan also rose by 4 per cent after it posted a 13 per cent improvement in consolidated profit after tax of ₹871 crore for the March quarter. 

Other Sensex gainers included Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Asian Paints, and Mahindra and Mahindra.

Despite the dip, market watchers were optimistic. V.K. Vijayakumar of Geojit Investments said, "The market is inherently resilient, supported by global and domestic macros. Weak dollar and potentially weakening US and Chinese economies are good for the Indian markets." adding that the conflict demonstrated "India's clear superiority in conventional warfare."

Despite the market slump on Thursday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) kept buying equities. The net FII inflow was ₹2,007.96 crore on Thursday.

Prashanth Tapse of Mehta Equities pitched in, "Profit-taking is likely to continue as investors fearing worse going ahead could trim their equity holdings despite the global mood remaining optimistic."

Among the major Asian market indices, Kospi and SSE Composite traded in the red, while Hang Seng and Nikkei traded higher.

 

 

 

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