Final Trade: Indices stage smart recovery, Sensex ends 319 pts lower, Nifty settles at 23,361

Indian equity benchmarks in a volatile session on Monday staged a smart recovery after sharp losses in early trade as buying in IT, pharma and consumer durables capped the losses. At the close, the 30-share Sensex ended 0.41 per cent or 319.22 points lower at 77,186,74, while the Nifty50 settled at 23,361.05, losing 0.52 per cent or 121.1 points.

Broader markets, also faced selling pressure, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index recording a fall of over 2 per cent.

From the Nifty pack, top gainers included stocks like Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance, M&M, Wipro and Bajaj Finserv, while top laggards were Larsen and Toubro, ONGC, Tata Consumer Products, Coal India and Bharat Electronics.

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Sectorally, it was a mixed session, with oil & gas, metal, FMCG and PSU Bank indices emerging as top sectoral losers, while IT and consumer durable stocks saw decent buying action. Furthermore, pharma and auto indices also ended with mild gains.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, “Slump in global equity markets weighed negatively on Indian benchmarks after Trump announced tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada which fuelled pessimism amongst the investors. The strong bearish undercurrent triggered massive selling in mid and small-cap stocks and the consumption-related FMCG and automobile stocks, as any let up in tariff war could trigger panic selling."

Besides, rupee depreciating sharply and breaching above 87 mark against the dollar raised concerns that foreign investors are unlikely to reverse the selling trend, added Tapse.

Stocks in action

Railway, defence and infra stocks: On subdued capex announcement in the Union Budget 2025, shares of capex-lined entities witnessed selling pressure. The revised capex budget for FY25 has been lowered to Rs 10.18 lakh crore as against the previous allocation of Rs 11 lakh crore. On the move stocks like IRB Infra, L&T, Bharat Dynamics and RITES slumped substantially in trade today.

Divi's Laboratories: Shares of the pharma company ended nearly 5 per cent higher at Rs 5,889.3 per share after the company's Q3 net profit surged 65 per cent on-year.