Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled on Thursday amid a sharp fall in Adani group stocks after billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani was charged in the US for alleged bribery and fraud.
Besides, relentless foreign fund outflows and weak trends in Asian and European peers also dragged benchmark indices lower.
The BSE benchmark Sensex tanked 422.59 points or 0.54 per cent to settle at 77,155.79. During the day, it lost 775.65 points or 0.99 per cent to 76,802.73.
As many as 2,736 stocks declined, while 1,237 advanced and 92 remained unchanged on the BSE.
The NSE Nifty slumped 168.60 points or 0.72 per cent to 23,349.90.
“The domestic market faced renewed pressure due to escalating tensions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and heightened nuclear concerns. Additionally, the fresh Adani case with the US DoJ added to the market’s woes.
“Although there were signs of a slowdown in FII selling, it surged again, adversely affecting market sentiment, particularly financials sector. We expect an improvement in the trend when global & domestic political issues stabilise,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.
From the 30-share Sensex pack, Adani Ports tumbled over 13 per cent after Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors over his role in an alleged years-long scheme to pay USD 265 million bribes to Indian officials in exchange for favourable terms for solar power contracts.
All other Adani group stocks, including Adani Enterprises, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy, fell sharply by up to nearly 23 per cent.
State Bank of India, NTPC, ITC, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were also among the major laggards.
In contrast, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies and Axis Bank were among the gainers.
The BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.67 per cent, and the midcap index dipped 0.37 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, services slumped 4.14 per cent, utilities (3.16 per cent), commodities (1.55 per cent), oil & gas (1.45 per cent), power (1.34 per cent) and auto (0.91 per cent).
On the other hand, healthcare, IT, realty and teck were the gainers.
“Several banking stocks came under heavy selling pressure as investor concerns grew over their exposure to Adani Group companies. We expect positive for telecom companies as the Supreme Court ruled in their favour, granting them the right to claim tax credits on duties paid for infrastructure components like tower parts and green shelters,” Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said.
The Indian stock markets were closed on Wednesday due to assembly elections in Maharashtra.
“While the market has been in the midst of a bear hug for the past few weeks, today’s fall can also be attributed to the news of the Adani group facing bribery charges, which triggered a massive sell-off in its group stocks. Besides the news, most of the Asian and European markets were in negative territories, which also weighed on the sentiment,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower, while Shanghai ended higher.
European markets were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended mostly in the positive zone.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.13 per cent to USD 73.71 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,411.73 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
“Markets are likely to react to the preliminary release of November month manufacturing and services PMI of the US, Europe and India tomorrow. In the near term, we expect the market to remain volatile on account of global geo-political concerns, relentless FII selling and uncertainty around the outcome of state assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand,” Khemka said.
Snapping its four days of decline, the BSE benchmark Sensex had climbed 239.37 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 77,578.38 on Tuesday. The Nifty also bounced back on Tuesday after falling in the past seven trading days. It rose 64.70 points or 0.28 per cent to settle at 23,518.50.
