Friday market meltdown: Sensex nosedives 739 pts, Nifty tanks 0.9%; ₹3.7 lakh crore of investor wealth wiped out

The Indian equity markets witnessed a sharp sell-off on the final day of the week as mixed global cues, profit booking, and lingering concerns over trade tensions and macroeconomic uncertainty weighed heavily on sentiment. The benchmark indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, declined by as much as 0.9% during Friday’s trade, triggering a sharp sell-off across sectors and wiping out investor wealth worth around ₹3.7 lakh crore. As a result, the cumulative market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies slipped to ₹457.6 lakh crore.

Market sentiment was dented after U.S. President Donald Trump hinted at the possibility of imposing steep tariffs on countries like India and China for continuing to import Russian energy. Trump said that he would strongly consider supporting a new Russia sanctions bill introduced in the U.S. Senate earlier this year, which proposes a 500% tariff on nations purchasing Russian energy—a move aimed at pressuring Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.

The 30-share Sensex plunged 739 points, or 0.89%, to hit an intraday low of 82,451, and the Nifty50 declined 218 points, or 0.86%, to touch the day’s low of 25,136. The markets saw broad-based selling, with the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices sliding by up to 0.8% each.

At the time of reporting, the Sensex was trading 0.8% lower at 82,529, and the Nifty was down by 202 points at 25,153.

Of the BSE Sensex pack, 23 of the 30 stocks were flashing in the red, led by IT heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) , Mahindra & Mahindra , Bharti Airtel , Reliance Industries , and Bajaj Finserv , falling in the range of 3.3% to 1.54%.

On the other hand, HUL, Axis Bank , Asian Paints , NTPC , Sun Pharma , UltraTech Cement , Eternal (Zomato) , and State Bank of India (SBI) were among the notable gainers.

Shares of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL ) surged by up to 5% after the FMCG heavyweight announced that it has appointed Priya Nair as its new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2025. Nair, who currently serves as President, Beauty & Wellbeing at Unilever, will succeed Rohit Jawa, who is stepping down after a two-year stint as MD & CEO.

Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) declined by over 2% on Friday after the company’s June quarter revenue fell short of market expectations, raising concerns about demand headwinds in the IT sector.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, said the Q1 results of TCS indicate a continuing struggle for IT companies, particularly large-cap IT firms. However, mid-cap IT firms are likely to perform well. Outperformance in Q1 will be seen in telecom, oil and gas, and segments of the auto sector. “Investors may focus on fairly valued stocks with earnings visibility,” he said.

He added that a significant trend in market performance in H12025 was the outperformance of large-caps versus the broader markets. “While the Nifty Smallcap 250 Index and Nifty Midcap 150 Index delivered 0.3% and 4.0% returns, respectively, the Nifty50 delivered a 7.9% return. The overvaluation of the broader market is getting corrected. India is underperforming markets like South Korea, Germany, Japan, and the MSCI EM. This is largely due to the elevated valuations in India.”

Meanwhile, equity markets across the Asia-Pacific region traded higher, following overnight gains on Wall Street. Investors digested the latest tariff-related comments from Trump while keeping a close watch on potential trade agreements with major U.S. partners, including China, Japan, and India.

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