Mumbai: Indian shares came under fresh selling pressure on Friday as Brent crude climbed to a five-month high near $113-114 a barrel, stoked by tensions in West Asia.
By 10.40 am, the Sensex was at 72,797.49, down 451.90 points or 0.62 per cent. The Nifty 50 fell 191.80 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 22,495.85. Forty-four of the 50 Nifty constituents were in the red, against six gainers.
Among heavyweights, Hindalco, Adani Enterprises and Tata Steel led the losses. The mid-cap and small-cap indices fell about 2.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively, with metals and realty the worst-hit sectors.
IT stocks moved the other way. TCS, Infosys and HCLTech traded higher, holding up even after AI-linked shares sold off in global markets overnight. Analysts said investors were treating Indian IT as a relative hedge against the global AI trade.
The rupee opened at 94.79 against the dollar. Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,459 crore in the previous session, while domestic institutions bought Rs 2,891 crore.
V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, said more than Rs 3 lakh crore parked in the Jio Platforms IPO would return to the system by next Monday, a potential liquidity boost for the market next week.
Swiggy, the quick-commerce firm, tumbled 13 per cent to a record low of Rs 198.30, as a wider core loss at its Instamart unit renewed questions about profitability in a crowded market. Colgate-Palmolive India fell 4.6 per cent, while Cyient rose 7.5 per cent on upbeat quarterly numbers. Asian markets fell in tandem: Japan's Nikkei dropped about 1.7 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI over 3 per cent, while the Nasdaq lost 2.6 per cent overnight in the US. On the Nifty 500, 478 stocks declined and 91 touched 52-week lows, suggesting the selloff was not confined to a handful of large companies. Losses in metals and realty added to the cautious mood.