Stock Market Highlights: Indian equities ended sharply lower on Friday, with the BSE Sensex dropping 1,097 points and the Nifty 50 falling below 24,500 as banking stocks dragged the market. Weak global cues and rising West Asia tensions kept sentiment fragile, marking the second straight weekly decline for benchmark indices.
The BSE Sensex plunged 1,097 points to 78,919, while the Nifty 50 slipped 315 points to close at 24,450, dragged lower by heavy selling in banking and financial stocks. Losses were broad-based, with 40 Nifty constituents ending in the red and private lenders such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank among the biggest drags on the benchmarks.
The weakness was particularly visible in the banking pack, with the Nifty Bank index tumbling 1,273 points — its steepest single-day fall since April 2025. Broader markets also saw pressure, as the Nifty Midcap 100 index declined nearly 400 points, while market breadth remained firmly negative with the advance-decline ratio at 2:3 on the National Stock Exchange of India.
Despite the broader sell-off, defence stocks bucked the trend and posted strong gains, supported by continued order-flow optimism.
The weak close also sealed the second straight weekly decline for the benchmark indices, with both the Sensex and Nifty logging their steepest weekly fall in over a year.