Mumbai, March 13 The benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, declined by over 1% during intra-day trading on Friday, driven by escalating conflict in the Middle East and rising oil prices.
Furthermore, heavy selling in global markets, continued outflows of foreign funds, and weakness in the rupee contributed to the decline in the equity benchmark indices.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 963.98 points or 1.26%, closing at 75,070.44 during intra-day trading. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined by 333.4 points or 1.41%, closing at 23,305.75.
Among the 30 companies in the Sensex, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Steel declined by over 4% each. Bharat Electronics, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank, and Maruti were also among the prominent laggards.
Hindustan Unilever, Trent, Bharti Airtel, and NTPC were the gainers.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose by 0.49% to $101 per barrel.
In Asian markets, the South Korean Kospi, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index, the Shanghai SSE Composite index, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index were trading lower.
The US market closed sharply lower on Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.78%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 1.56%, and the S&P 500 fell by 1.52%.
According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold equities worth Rs 7,049.87 crore on Thursday. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought stocks worth Rs 7,449.77 crore.
On Thursday, the Sensex fell by 829.29 points or 1.08%, closing at 76,034.42. Similarly, the Nifty fell by 227.70 points or 0.95%, closing at 23,639.15.