Sensex, Nifty50 plunge 1.6% with heavy sell off in PSU Bank and all sectoral indices in the red

• Sensex and Nifty50 closed 1.6% lower on Friday as concerns of a Covid resurgence put the bears in control.
• At the end of the day, all the sectoral indices were in the red with PSU Bank, metal, media, and oil & gas sectoral indices being the top losers.
• The 30-stock index Sensex closed 981 points or 1.6% lower at 59,845 while Nifty50 ended 3201 points or 1.8% down at 17,807

India’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty50 closed 1.6% lower on Friday as concerns of a Covid resurgence put the bears in control. During the end of the session all the sectoral indices were in the red with PSU Bank, metal, media, oil & gas being top losers.

Except two pharmaceutical company stocks – Cipla (0.24%), Divi’s Laboratories (0.22%) and Titan (0.20%) all other stocks in the 50-stock Nifty50 index were in the red.

The 30-stock index Sensex closed 981 points or 1.6% lower at 59,845 while Nifty50 ended 3201 points or 1.8% down at 17,807.

“Nifty fell for the fourth consecutive session on December 23, after US stocks sold off in the previous session. Nifty opened with a downgap and kept falling through the day before closing 1.77% or 320.6 points lower at 17806.8. This was the sharpest single day fall in three months. Nifty was the second worst performer in the region after South Korea,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.

Meanwhile, three out of five top gaining stocks on the Nifty500 index were from the pharmaceutical sector, rallying on hopes of increased demand for drugs as concerns of a Covid resurgence gain momentum.

Here are top moving stocks in the Nifty500 index

All sectoral indices closed in the red with PSU bank (-6.06%), media (-4.99%), metal (-4.47%), realty (-3.45%), auto (-2.54%), IT (-1.83%) being the top losers.

On Thursday, the US reported stronger GDP numbers than expected – its GDP grew 3.2% as against the expectations of 2.9% growth.

Crude oil prices took a breather after strong US GDP data showed there’s still some way to go for the Fed to hike rates. Brent crude oil prices fell to $82.1 per barrel on Friday morning from $83.6 when markets closed on Thursday.

Global markets in the red on strong US GDP data
Markets around the world declined after the US reported strong gross domestic product (GDP) data, stoking fears that the US Fed will continue on its path of rate hikes.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed Thursday with a decline of 1.45%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.05%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 2.18%.

In Asia, all the markets were in the red ahead of Christmas. Leading the decline was South Korea’s KOSPI index with a loss of 1.83%, followed by Taiwan SE Weighted Index down 1.19%, Nikkei 225 with a 1.03% decline. The Hang Seng index was down 0.33%, while Shanghai Composite was lower 0.28%.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) were net sellers on Friday pulling out ₹706.84 crore while domestic institutional investors (DII) bought ₹3,398.98 crore.

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