NEW DELHI: Dragged by IT stocks and weak quarterly results, the BSE benchmark sensex on Friday crashed by over 800 points to end at 66,684.
Similarly, the Nifty also closed 234 points lower at 19,745.
The slide in sensex and Nifty comes after six straight sessions of gains, in which both Indian indices had scaled fresh record highs. The sensex had surged 474.46 points or 0.71 per cent to settle at its fresh all-time closing high of 67,571.90 on Thursday.
One of the main reasons behind Friday's fall was the downward revision of guidance by IT major Infosys. The IT sector experienced a sharp decline of 4.09%, primarily driven by Infosys, which faced a significant loss of over 8%, negatively impacting the overall market sentiment.
Following the release of its first-quarter numbers, Hindustan Unilever also witnessed a notable downturn. Hindustan Unilever lost 3.67% after failing to meet the June-quarter profit expectations due to higher costs.
Additionally, index heavyweight Reliance Industries declined by 3.10% ahead of its June quarter results, which were scheduled to be released post-market hours on Friday.
On the positive sign, Larsen & Toubro performed well, gaining 3.88% and reaching a fresh record high after securing a construction order worth 70 billion rupees. The company also planned to consider a proposal for the buyback of equity shares and payment of special dividends. Additionally, Union Bank of India saw a significant jump of nearly 4%, consequently pulling public sector banks up by 0.25%, following the announcement of higher June-quarter profit.
The record-breaking rally of past few days had helped sensex surged more than 10,000 points from the year’s low of 57,527 seen on March 24.
Strong buying by foreign funds, good progress of the monsoon, a stable currency, the RBI’s proactive measures that have been successfully keeping a check on inflation, have all combined to take the indices to new highs on a regular basis, market players said.
Along with India, other equities in Asia declined too, following weakness in Wall Street overnight, as lacklustre earnings from Tesla and Netflix and concerns of a prolonged high-interest rate regime in the US weighed on sentiment.
(With inputs from agencies)
