Markets staged a partial recovery by midday Friday after opening sharply lower on escalating Middle East tensions, though benchmark indices remained in negative territory as investors remained cautious about the evolving geopolitical situation.
The traded at 81,108.95, down 583.03 points or 0.71 per cent from Thursday’s close of 81,691.98, while the declined 181.95 points or 0.73 per cent to 24,706.25 from its previous close of 24,888.20. Both indices had opened significantly lower at 80,427.81 and 24,473.00 respectively following Israel’s pre-emptive strikes on Iran.
Market breadth remained weak with 2,554 stocks declining against 1,273 advances on the BSE, while 147 stocks remained unchanged. The broader market showed mixed signals with 64 stocks hitting 52-week highs and 51 touching 52-week lows. Circuit breakers were triggered on 163 stocks on the upside and 209 on the downside.
Among the top gainers on the NSE, defence contractor led with a 1.42 per cent rise to 392.90, followed by state-run oil explorer which gained 1.40 per cent to 251.36. Information technology stocks showed resilience with advancing 1.33 per cent to 1,666.20 and climbing 0.72 per cent to 261.47. rounded out the top five gainers with a 0.45 per cent increase to 7,028.00.
The losses were led by , which fell 2.13 per cent to 1,408.10, while declined 1.69 per cent to 792.35. dropped 1.66 per cent to 2,500.20, slipped 1.64 per cent to 1,995.60, and fell 1.53 per cent to 657.80.
Sectoral indices reflected the cautious sentiment with the index down 1.08 per cent to 55,483.05 and the Nifty Financial Services index declining 1.15 per cent to 26,274.75. The broader Nifty Next 50 fell 1.07 per cent to 66,811.70, while the Nifty Midcap 100 showed relative resilience, dropping just 0.57 per cent to 58,105.85.
The recovery from morning lows came as crude oil prices stabilized after surging over 10 per cent earlier in the session, though they remained elevated at $76-78 per barrel. Gold continued to trade near six-week highs around $2,420 per ounce as investors sought safe-haven assets amid the geopolitical uncertainty.
Foreign institutional investors continued their selling streak, offloading over ₹3,500 crore in Indian equities in June so far, adding pressure to market sentiment despite the Reserve Bank of India’s recent rate cut aimed at supporting economic growth.