Mumbai, April 3 (IANS). Due to increasing geopolitical tension in West Asia and sharp currency fluctuations, the Indian stock market closed with a decline for the sixth consecutive week. Both major benchmarks remained in the red in the short four-day trading week.
BSE Sensex closed at 73,319.55 on Thursday, which is 263.67 points or 0.35 percent lower than last Friday’s closing price. Whereas Nifty50 closed at 22,713.10 with a decline of 106.50 points or 0.46 percent on weekly basis.
A huge fall was seen in the market on the last trading day of the week. Nifty fell by more than 500 points in early trade and Sensex fell by more than 1,500 points. This decline came at a time when US President Donald Trump warned that there could be strong military attacks on Iran in the next 2-3 weeks. However, by the end of the day some recovery was seen in the market.
Among the Nifty 50 companies, HDFC Life Insurance, Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, NTPC and Cipla were the biggest losers this week.
In the broader markets, BSE Midcap 150 underperformed the benchmarks and fell 0.6 per cent week-on-week, while BSE Smallcap 250 bucked the trend with a gain of 0.8 per cent.
Sector wise, realty, healthcare and banking sectors saw a growth of about 3 percent, 2.7 percent and 1 percent respectively. Whereas metal, power and consumer durables sectors recorded a decline of more than 2 percent and were among the top losers.
Experts believe that the market may continue to remain volatile in the coming weeks as investors’ eyes are focused on the developments in West Asia.
According to experts, if the tension subsides, there may be a fall in crude oil prices and stability in the currency, which will provide relief to the market. At the same time, if tensions increase, there will be pressure on foreign investment and weakness in the market may continue.
At present the prices of Brent crude remain around $107 per barrel.
The market will keep an eye on several important events in the coming week, including the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI, the minutes of the US FOMC meeting (April 8) and the start of Q4FY26 results.
It is noteworthy that the stock market and commodity markets are closed on Friday due to ‘Good Friday’. Now the markets will open on Monday, because Saturday and Sunday are weekly holidays.
–IANS
DBP