Sensex drops 10,000 points from September peak, logs weekly losses

Indian indices fell on Friday and ended the week in the red with many sectoral indices plummeting. Auto, media, pharma, PSU Bank, realty, healthcare, oil and gas were among them, NSE data showed.

Sensex closed at 76,190.46, down 329.92 points or 0.43% while Nifty closed at 23,092.20, down 113.15 points or 0.49%.

Sensex is now 10,000 points away from its all time high of 85,978 in September. Sensex has fallen 3% this year so far.

Indian markets are volatile due to uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s policies. Investors are worried about disruptions in global trade during Trump’s presidency.

Weak domestic growth, foreign portfolio investors selling have been impacting the markets.

In 2024, Sensex and Nifty grew around 9-10%. In 2023, Sensex and Nifty grew 16-17% on a cumulative basis. In 2022, they grew 3% each. Weak GDP growth, foreign fund outflows, rising food prices and slow consumption were some of the reasons that kept many investors away in 2024.

"FIIs will continue to sell and put pressure on largecaps like banking. The irrationality in the market where largecaps like banking are trading at fair and even low valuations and broader market is overvalued will have to reverse at some point of time. But we don’t know when that will happen," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

"Q3 results of IT companies and management commentary indicating improvement in the sector makes it a safe bet now," said Vijayakumar.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities, said, global events, Union Budget, RBI policy and Q3FY25 season will continue to guide the market over the next two weeks.

Indian markets underperformed most of the global markets this week. Broader market was weak with midcap and smallcap indices underperforming the largecaps. Most of the sectoral indices ended the week in red with BSE realty index witnessing a sharp correction. 

BSE IT index was an outlier as it outperformed in a weak market. FII continue to be net sellers of Indian equity and are adding to the pressure on the market. Q3FY25 earnings season has been in line with our expectations. INR appreciated and Brent crude corrected this week, said Chouhan.