Sensex, Nifty50 extend losses to 2nd day dragged by IT, financial shares

Sensex Today, Nifty 50 on August 1: Domestic equity benchmarks suffered sharp losses on Friday, the first session of a new monthly derivative series, as selling pressure in IT and financial stocks outweighed buying in pockets like FMCG. The Sensex dropped 585.7 points, or 0.7 per cent lower, to 80,599.9 while the Nifty50 gave up 203 points, or 0.8 per cent, to settle at 24,565.4. Analysts awaited more corporate results for domestic cues, while investors globally cringed at uncertainty around US President Donald Trump's recipricrocal tariffs as he signed a fresh executive order revising tariffs for 70 countries, including India.

This week, Trump announced a 25 per cent duty for goods imported into the US from India, though he later said that trade deal talks were on with America's Asian trade partner.

Analysts said that the back-and-forth with Trump's tariff announcements has kept investors on edge globally.

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Here are 10 things to know about August 1's trade:

• Both main indices remained in negative territory for much of the session, spending only the second hour of trade above the flatline. In intraday trade, the Sensex gyrated in a range of more than 800 points between 80,495.6 and 81,317.5.

Top Nifty 50 gainers and losers

• Sun Pharma was the top losers in both indices, falling 4.5 per cent for the day. Among other top losers in the Nifty50 basket were DRL, Adani Enterprises, Cipla, Tata Steel, Infosys and Tata Motors, closing between 2.4 per cent and 3.9 per cent lower. On the other hand, Trent, Eicher, Asian Paints, HUL and Nestle India--rising between 1.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent--were the top gainers.

Top Sensex movers | From Infosys to ITC

• Infosys, Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma put the maximum pressure on the 30-scrip index, whereas gains in ITC, Trent and HUL lent some support.
• Sun Pharma shares continued to fall for a second straight day after the pharma major reported its financial results during market hours on Thursday. Read more on Sun Pharma results
• PNB Housing Finance shares slumped 18 per cent after the NBFC's managing director and CEO Girish Kousgi stepped down the previous day.

ICICI Bank weighs on Nifty Bank

• The Nifty Bank--whose 12 constituents include the stocks of the country's largest and strongest banks--declined 344.4 points, or 0.6 per cent, for the day, dragged by weakness in stocks like ICICI Bank.

Midcap and smallcap indices

• The selloff was broad-based, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices falling 1.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.
• Overall market breadth turned from moderately negative to extremely negative in the second half of the day, with two stocks falling for every rising stock on BSE. In other words, the end-of-day advance-decline ratio stood at 1:2 on the bourse, as 1,309 scrips rose while 2,711 fell for the day.

Global markets

• European shares tanked in the early hours on Friday, with the pan-continental Stoxx 600 trading 1.2 per cent lower at the last count.
• Dow futures was down nearly 400 points, indicating a gap-down start on Wall Street later in the day.