Shares of major companies like Reliance Industries (RIL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) dropped, contributing to a decline in the stock market. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty, which are benchmark stock indices in India, fell by more than 1% on Friday. This happened because a big IT company called Infosys announced that its growth outlook for the next year (FY24) would be lower than expected, causing its stock to plummet by over 8%. Infosys said this was due to delays in decision-making by clients and global uncertainties.
As a result, the Sensex lost 887.64 points (around 1.31%) and settled at 66,684.26. During the day, it even fell by 1,038.16 points (approximately 1.53%) to 66,533.74. The Nifty also dropped by 234.15 points (around 1.17%) to close at 19,745, ending its six-day winning streak. Out of the 50 Nifty shares, 36 closed negatively, while 14 managed to advance.
Apart from Infosys, other companies like Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra also faced losses. On the positive side, Larsen & Toubro saw a rise of 3.88% after securing a big order for a bullet train project worth over Rs 7,000 crore. There were some other gainers too, like NTPC, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Maruti, and Bharti Airtel.
The IT sector was hit the hardest with a decline of 4.40%, followed by consumer durables, which dropped 1.09%. This overall decline in the market was influenced by various factors, and experts mentioned that the broader market was trading mixed.
Globally, the US market was struggling due to weak earnings, but UK retail sales showed growth, exceeding expectations with a 0.7% increase month-on-month. In Asian markets, Tokyo and Shanghai ended lower, while Seoul and Hong Kong settled in positive territory. European markets were mostly trading positively, and the US markets mostly closed lower on Thursday. The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, rose by 1.19% to reach $80.59 a barrel.
Just the day before, the BSE Sensex had achieved an all-time high of 67,571.90, but this time it faced a decline, snapping its six-day record-breaking rally.
