Snapping its seven-day winning streak, Indian stock market’s frontline index, the Sensex, closed with a significant loss of over 700 points on Wednesday, March 26, on across-the-board selloff. Sensex closed with a loss of 729 points, or 0.93 per cent, at 77,288.50, while the Nifty 50 settled 182 points, or 0.77 per cent, lower at 23,486.85.
The BSE Smallcap index underperformed with a loss of 1.45 per cent, while the Midcap index closed 0.67 per cent lower.
The market selloff made investors poorer by about ₹4 lakh crore in a day as the overall market capitalisation of firms listed on the BSE dropped to nearly ₹411 lakh crore from ₹415 lakh crore in the previous session.
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Bank declined 0.77 per cent, while PSU Bank and Private Bank dropped 1.19 per cent and 0.90 per cent, respectively.
Nifty Media (down 2.40 per cent) ended as the top loser among sectoral indices. Realty, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indices dropped over a per cent each.
What drove the Indian stock market down today?
Here are five key factors that experts believe were behind the selloff in the Indian stock market today:
1. Profit booking in key heavyweights
Experts pointed out that the Indian stock market witnessed a significant rebound in March after correcting 15 per cent from its peak. As uncertainty surrounding US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies persists, investors are booking profit to pocket some gains.
Shares of HDFC Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank ended as the top drags on the Sensex index on Wednesday.
