All the sectoral indices on NSE traded in the red, with IT, media and auto shares declining the most.
At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tanked 1,347.77 points or 1.81% to 73,262.37. The Nifty 50 index declined 405.30 points or 1.80% to 22,139.75.
The broader market underperformed frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 2.75% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index dropped 3.10%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 491 shares rose and 3,409 shares fell. A total of 104 shares were unchanged.
SEBI Leadership Change:
Tuhin Kanta Pandey has been appointed as the 11th chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a three-year term. The current Finance Secretary will replace Madhabi Puri Buch, who will complete her tenure as SEBI's first woman chairperson on Friday, February 28, 2025.
Gainers & Losers:
Coal India (up 1.24%), Shriram Finance (up 1.02%) and HDFC Bank (up 0.74%) were the major Nifty gainers.
IndusInd Bank (down 6.01%), Tech Mahindra (down 5.58%), Wipro (down 4.96%), Titan Company (down 4.86%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 3.99%) were the major Nifty losers.
Coal India rose 1.24% after the company said it will impose an additional charge of Rs 300 per tonne across Northern Coalfields mines.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Tata Power Company slipped 1.98%. The company announced that its subsidiary, TP Solar, has secured a contract worth Rs 632 crore from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for the supply of 292.5 MWp of domestic content requirement (DCR) solar modules.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) slipped 3.43%. The company announced that it had extended its partnership with DNB Bank ASA for an additional five years to power next-generation banking innovation.
Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) dropped 4.91%. The company has announced that it has received a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from Central Railway for a project valued at Rs 135.66 crore.
NCC declined 2.71%. The company has announced that its board has approved an equity investment of Rs 70 crore in NCC Quantum Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
Global Markets:
European stocks fell on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose tariffs on the European Union. He also followed through with the announcement of new levies on Canada and Mexico.
Similarly, Asian shares tumbled on Friday following Trump’s decision to impose an additional 10% tax on Chinese imports, on top of the 10% tariff introduced earlier this month.
Furthermore, Trump also reaffirmed his plan to implement a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, which is set to take effect on March 4.
In Japan, factory output dipped 1.1% in January from the previous month, while retail sales climbed 3.9% year-over-year. Meanwhile, core consumer prices in Tokyo rose 2.2% in February.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, dragged down by a selloff in chip stocks and signs of a cooling economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.45% to 43,239.50, while the S&P 500 declined 1.59% to end at 5,861.57. The Nasdaq closed 2.78% lower at 18,544.42.
Nvidia shares plunged 8.5% to $120.15, despite strong Q4 earnings that beat expectations. Investors remain wary of shrinking profit margins and rising costs tied to its Blackwell AI chip rollout.
The US economy expanded at a 2.3% annualized rate in Q4 2024, unchanged from initial estimates but slower than Q3's 3.1% growth. For the full year, GDP grew 2.8%, slightly below 2023's 2.9%.
Meanwhile, jobless claims surged unexpectedly, with 242,000 new applications filed last week—up 22,000 from the previous period.
On a brighter note, new orders for US-manufactured capital goods jumped 0.8% in January, following a downwardly revised 0.2% rise in December.