Sensex Tanks 1,000 Points, Nifty Drops Below 24,000

Mumbai, Apr 25 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined sharply in morning trade on Friday dragged lower by Axis Bank and growing concerns over geopolitical tensions following the terror attack at Pahalgam, in Jammu & Kashmir.

Wiping out all early gains, the 30-share BSE benchmark gauge tanked 1,004.04 points to 78,797.39 in late morning trade. The NSE Nifty dropped 338.1 points to 23,908.60.

Experts said worries over growing geopolitical tensions amid Tuesday's terror attack weighed on market sentiment.

From the Sensex firms, Axis Bank declined 4.50 per cent after the country's third largest private sector lender reported a marginal decline in March quarter profit to Rs 7,117 crore, from Rs 7,130 crore in the year-ago period.

Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, Power Grid, Eternal, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel were also among the laggards.

However, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were trading higher.

There are tailwinds and headwinds for the market now. A strong tailwind is the sustained FII buying which has touched a cumulative amount of Rs 29,513 crore during the last 7 days, VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

He further added that another tailwind is US Treasury Secretary Scot Bessent's remark that "India is expected to strike the first bilateral trade deal with the US."

"The potential headwind looming large on the horizon is the uncertainty regarding India's response to the terror attack and its consequences," Vijayakumar said.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi index, Tokyo's Nikkei 225, Shanghai SSE Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory.

US markets ended significantly higher on Thursday. Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.74 per cent, S&P 500 surged 2.03 per cent and Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.23 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 8,250.53 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.65 per cent to USD 66.98 a barrel.

On Thursday, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined 315.06 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 79,801.43 on Thursday. The Nifty went down by 82.25 points or 0.34 per cent to 24,246.70.