Udaipur, March 1, 2028 - Yesterday, Dalal Street saw a bloodbath with heavy investor selling on the back of weak global cues. Both the major indices crashed with the Nifty setting a new record for declines, the worst in 29 years. By the end of yesterday’s trading session, the Sensex had fallen by 1,414 points, closing at 73,198. Nifty also plunged by 420 points or 1.9%, closing at 22,125. FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors) pulled out more than Rs 2.13 lakh crore. Almost 18% of investor wealth since September 2024 was wiped out in one single session.

Friday proved to be a 'Black Friday' for the Indian stock market with all key sectoral indices closing in the red.  This is the first time since 1996 that Nifty closed with a decline for five consecutive months. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices also fell by over 2%. Sectoral indices closed in the red, with the IT and Telecom indices dropping by more than 4%. The BSE Smallcap index plunged by 2.33% and BSE Midcap index fell 2.16%. Nifty Auto declined 3.92% and Nifty IT fell 4.18%.

Additionally, the market value of companies listed on the BSE dropped by nearly Rs 9 lakh crore in a single day.

There are multiple reasons which led the markets to bleed so heavily on the last trading day of the week. The Indian markets have become vulnerable to external factors key among which is the fear of global trade war leading to major anxiety among the domestic investors. US President Donald Trump’s latest announcements on tariffs is contributing to the fall. Trump has brought forward the tariff imposition date on Canada and Mexico to March 4 instead of the earlier April 2.

The US President’s announcements has led to inflation expectations in the US. This is causing the IT stocks to decline.

Asian markets are also trading in the negative. The six-week rally in Hong Kong ended and Japanese stocks witnessed the largest sell-off in five months.

Back home, investors are nervous ahead of the release of India’s Gross Domestic Data (GDP) for FY2024-25 and October-December 2024 quarter.