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The Sensex plunged over 270 points led by Infosys as the company Chief Executive Vishal Sikka's resignation heightened uncertainty about the IT services provider's future.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex closed the session down by 270.78 points or 0.85 per cent at 31,524.68 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended lower by 66.75 points or 0.67 per cent at 9,837.40.
Intraday, the Sensex plunged 446.33 points to a low of 31,349.13 and the Nifty dropped 116.6 points to 9,787.50.
Infosys shares plummeted 13.39 per cent to Rs 884.40 — its 52-week low level — on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock crashed 13.38 per cent to hit its one-year low of Rs 884.20.
The company shares closed down by 9.6 per cent at Rs 923.10 on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock closed down by 9.57 per cent at Rs 923.15.
Domestic sentiment was also hit due to weak global cues as a deadly attack in Spain and rising concerns over the fate of US President Donald Trump’s economic agenda.
Sectoral indices
Among BSE sectoral indices, IT index fell the most by 3.53 per cent, TECk 2.67 per cent, healthcare 1.6 per cent and realty 0.92 per cent. On the other hand, oil & gas index was up 0.92 per cent, FMCG 0.76 per cent and consumer durables 0.21 per cent.
Major Sensex losers were Infosys (-9.6%), Sun Pharma (-3.81%), NTPC (-2.01%), HDFC (-1.6%) and Coal India (-1.52%), while the top five gainers were HUL (+2.23%), Power Grid (+1.85%), TCS (+1.32%), Bharti Airtel (+1.21%) and ITC (+0.84%).
Drug makers, which have significant exports to the United States, also dropped, with the Nifty Pharma index falling as much as 1.7 per cent. Bank shares were also big drag on the indexes
“There is some dip because of Infosys. Market is under pressure, the uptrend which was there since December is under pressure,” said Anupam Singhi, chief operations officer, Marketsmith India, part of William O'Neil India.
Asian shares
Asian stock investors joined a global retreat from riskier assets on Friday and the dollar wavered on growing doubts about US President Donald Trump's ability to fulfill his economic agenda.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.5 per cent in early trade, but still looked set to gain 1.4 per cent for the week after tensions between North Korea and the United States came off the boil. Japan's Nikkei slid 1.2 per cent as the Yen rose, and looked set to lose 1.3 per cent for the week.
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