Final Trade: Sensex ends lower by 201 pts, Nifty settles below 22,400 levels

Indian equities amid a broad-based sell-off barring gains in the PSU Banking basket ended lower. At the close, the BSE 30-share Sensex fell 201 points or 0.27 per cent to 73,828.91, while the Nifty50 ended lower by 0.33 per cent or 73.3 points at 22,397.2.

Sectorally, the Realty, Media, Auto and IT stocks led the losses, while only PSU Banks led the gains. IT stocks also entered the bear zone, with investors losing a staggering Rs 8.4 lakh crore in m-capitalisation. 

The Nifty IT index has plunged as much as 21 per cent from its peak and a fresh 3 per cent drop in the latest trading session has deepened the losses.

From the Nifty50 basket, top gainers included stocks like Bharat Electronics, NTPC, ONGC, SBI and Sun Pharma, while laggards have been Shriram Finance, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors and Hindalco.

European markets

European markets in Thursday's trade traded positive to negative as global trade war fears loomed.

Expert take

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services on the markets today said, "Shortened trading week and sell-off in the US short market are providing a hiccup to the global market. However, India is withstanding with resilience and healthy outperformance, by a narrow negative trend. Even concerns that the US may have to bear a recession are not impacting the Indian market due to signs of recovery in fundamentals led by moderation in inflation, future rate cuts, and improvement in the economy in FY26 led by government spending and improvement in consumer income. However, if US policy continues to be tepid, it will become a point of concern."