Early trading saw a market collapse as tensions in the Middle East grew

As investors’ morale was negatively impacted by the growing tensions in the Middle East, equity benchmark indexes saw a massive sell-off in early trading on Friday, extending their losing run to a fifth day.

The recent withdrawal of foreign funds, the increase in the price of Brent crude oil, and the drop in IT stocks all contributed to the general negative outlook for stocks.

At 71,816.46, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 672.53 points.At 21,777.65, the NSE Nifty fell 218.2 points.

Infosys saw a loss of more than 2% from the Sensex basket after the company’s revenue growth projection for FY25 fell short of market expectations.

For FY25, the business projects an operating margin of 20–22 percent and sales increase of 1-3 percent in constant currency.

“Infosys guided for 1-3 per cent constant currency revenue growth for FY25, missing expectations,” JM Financial Institutional Securities said.

The other significant laggards were Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, and Nestle India. The beneficiaries were HDFC Bank and ITC. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Seoul were all quoted negatively in Asian markets.

On Thursday, Wall Street finished mainly down.

The benchmark for world oil, Brent crude, increased 2.27 percent to USD 89.09 a barrel.

According to exchange statistics, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded stocks on Thursday for a total of Rs 4,260.33 crore.

The markets have been rattled by reports of the anticipated escalation of the hostilities between Iran and Israel. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said that “distinctive weakness in Asian markets and sharp cuts in US futures reflect heightened nervousness in equity markets.”

Meanwhile, the first round of voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections began on Friday.

On Thursday, the benchmark BSE fell 454.69 points, or 0.62 percent, to close at 72,488.99.

At 21,995.85, the NSE Nifty fell 152.05 points, or 0.69 percent.