Finance
Stock Market Close Updates, Friday February 28, 2025: Equity benchmark indexes under severe selling pressure on Friday amid negative global cues after US President Donald Trump pledged to slap tariffs on Canada and Mexico as scheduled beginning March 4. Additionally, Trump threatened China with 10% extra tariffs.
The BSE Sensex had a one-way street after opening with a negative gap of 400 points, plummeting to a low of 73,141, and eventually ending with a loss of 1,414 points or 1.9% at 73,198.
The BSE Sensex closed the week with a loss of 2,113 points, or 2.8%, and is down 4,303 points, or 5.6%, for the month of February 2025. The Sensex has now fallen over 15% from its all-time high of 85,978.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty 50 index fell to a low of 22,105 before closing the day with a 1.9% loss, or 420 points, at 22,125. The Nifty 50 index fell 5.9 percent in February and is now down nearly 16 percent from its all-time high of 26,277. If the Nifty falls by 20% from its peak, it will enter bear market territory.
Samir Arora, founder and chief investment officer of Helios Capital on Day 2 of BS Manthan in New Delhi said that the market was in a high uncertainty phase amid Trump tariff threats. He believes that the uncertainty could play for another 3 – 4 months, the US President Trump won’t be able to play the tariff game for long.
Back to the day’s action, the selling was broad-based across sectors with IT and Auto shares been worst hit. IndusInd Bank down 7 per cent was the biggest loser. Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Titan, Infosys and Nestle India shed 4 – 6 per cent each. 27 out of the Sensex 30 shares declined over 1 per cent each. HDFC Bank up 2 per cent was the lone shining star in the Sensex 30 shares.
In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell more than 2%. The BSE SmallCap index then experienced its steepest monthly decline in the previous five years. The market breadth was exceptionally bearish on Friday, with nearly 5 dropping stocks for every gaining share on the BSE.
Out of 4,081 equities traded on the BSE, 3,248 concluded with losses and 742 with gains. A total of 476 BSE equities were locked in their respective lower circuits, with 106 hitting upper bounds.
All sectoral indices concluded with losses of more than 1%. The BSE IT and Auto indices were the worst affected, falling approximately 4% each. FMCG, healthcare, capital goods, consumer durables and Oil & Gas indices dropped more than 2 per cent each..
Source: BS
