Sensex, Nifty today: Why stock indices are down despite firm broader market

Selling in heavyweight banking and IT stocks dragged Sensex and Nifty lower in Friday's trade, in an otherwise strong day for the broader market. HDFC Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd alone contributed to nearly half of Sensex's intraday losses. Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Ltd (TCS) also added to the fall.

The BSE Sensex fell 614 points, or 0.77 per cent to close at 79,330.14. Nifty declined 168.80 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 24,019.85. It hit a low of 24,006.75 earlier in the day. This is even as 2,136 BSE-listed stocks gained against 1,499 that slid so far. Markets across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were trading lower after an overnight fall in US stocks.

"It is too early to conclude that FIIs will continue to buy. With dollar index at 109.25 and the U.S. 10-year yield at 4.56 per cent the macro construct is not favourable for sustained FII buying. Impressive pick up in deposit growth augurs well for banking stocks which are fairly priced," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Tech Mahindra led the slide. It fell 2.31 per cent to 1,687.75. HDFC Bank declined 1.88 per cent to Rs 1,759.55. TCS slipped 1.76 per cent to Rs 4,110.70. ICICI Bank, Infosys and Zomato dipped 1.64 per cent, 1.44 per cent and 0.95 per cent, respectively.

Overall, 2025 could be a challenging year as demand is weak, cost efficiencies already extracted, and policy is restrictive while valuations are elevated, à la 2007, Nuvama Institutional Equities said.

"We have more conviction on our UWs rather than OWs. This is because even among traditional defensives, either margin levers are exhausted (FMCG) or valuations are rich (IT), limiting potential upside. Nonetheless, strong balance sheets should limit dislocations. Stimulative policies could yield better opportunities," it said,

in the broader market, shares of Avenue Supermarts Ltd (DMart) climbed 12 per cent in Friday's trade after the company in a Q3 update said its standalone revenue from operations grew 17.18 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 13,247.33 crore for the quarter compared with Rs 11,304.58 crore in the same quarter last year.

"After the relatively weaker Q2, the revenue growth recovered to the 17-20 per cent YoY range," MOFSL said. It said that the sales growth was driven by 13 per cent YoY store addition and likely high single digit same store sale growth.

Wockhardt Ltd climbed 9 per cent during the trading session on Friday to hit its new 52-week high after the national drug regulator approved a medicine of the company. Wockhardt surged 9.29 per cent to Rs 1,580 on Friday, hitting its new 52-week high. The total market capitalization of the company zipped past Rs 25,000 crore.

RITES Ltd advanced 4 per cent after the PSU said it secured major orders from Steel Authority of India - Bhilai Steel Plant. The stock rose 4 per cent to Rs 304.75.