Nifty is close to 25,100, with Sensex down over 400 points, led by ICICI Bank and Reliance

Summary: Except for the IT shares gauge, all 13 sector gauges were trading down, indicating widespread selling pressure, driven by the 2.4% decline in the Nifty Realty index.

Share Market Today: The losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, and Asian Paints caused the Indian equity benchmarks to decline on Friday. 

Strong selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) upset market sentiment, causing the Sensex to fall as much as 446 points and the Nifty 50 index to plunge below its critical psychological threshold of 25,150. 

On Thursday, the FIIs sold off shares valued at Rs 15,243 crore as geopolitical tensions grew between Israel and Iran. As of 9:32 am, the Sensex had down 434 points to 82,062, while the Nifty 50 index had dropped 148 points to 25,102.

According to analysts, FIIs have been selling aggressively in Indian markets since the beginning of this month because China announced many stimulus measures to boost its flagging economy. This might be referred to as a capital flight from Indian markets to China.

The Nikkei in Japan increased by 0.34 percent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong by 0.30 percent, and the KOSPI in South Korea by 0.78 percent, while most other Asian markets traded higher.

The major indexes on Wall Street saw lower overnight closings after opening the day marginally higher. US unemployment claims are on the rise, signaling a softening labor market despite robust growth in the service sector, according to data released on Thursday. The much-anticipated September non-farm payrolls report is due this Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.44 percent to 42,011.59, the S&P 500 fell 0.17 percent to 5,699.94, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.04 percent to 17,918.48.

At the domestic level, there was widespread selling pressure as all 13 sector gauges—aside from the IT shares measure—saw weaker trade, with the Nifty Realty index falling 2.4% to lead the decline. The Nifty indices for autos, financial services, metal, consumer durables, pharmaceuticals, and oil and gas all saw 0.5% to 1% declines.

Selling pressure was also seen in mid- and small-cap equities as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices fell by more than 1% each.

Bharat Petroleum was the biggest loser on the Nifty, whose shares dropped 3.3% to Rs 337 due to growing crude oil prices on global markets. Among the other losing companies are Bajaj Finance, Trent, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finserv, Shriram Finance, Cipla, Tata Steel, and NTPC.

However, ONGC was the biggest Nifty gainer, with a 1.5% increase in the stock. Among the winners were SBI Life, HDFC Life, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, and HCL Technologies.

922 shares were rising on the BSE while 2,032 shares were falling, resulting in a highly negative total market breadth.

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