The key equity benchmarks traded with substantial losses in morning trade due to ongoing FII selling and concerns over the tariffs situation. The Nifty dropped below 22,300 level. IT shares declined for the seventh consecutive trading session.
At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 829.69 points or 1.11% to 73,777. The Nifty 50 index dropped 260.65 points or 1.16% to 22,284.40.
The broader market underperformed frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.86% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.96%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 617 shares rose and 2,947 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.
SEBI Leadership Change:
Tuhin Kanta Pandey has been appointed as the 11th chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a three-year term. The current Finance Secretary will replace Madhabi Puri Buch, who will complete her tenure as SEBI's first woman chairperson on Friday, February 28, 2025.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty IT declined 3.66% to 37,521. The index dropped 9.51% in seven consecutive trading session.
Persistent Systems (down 5.08%), Tech Mahindra (down 4.65%), Coforge (down 4.25%), Mphasis (down 4.12%) and Wipro (down 3.99%) were the top losers. Among the other losers were HCL Technologies (down 3.57%), Infosys (down 3.26%), LTIMindtree (down 2.97%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 2.78%) and L&T Technology Services (down 2.27%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Tata Power Company shed 0.73%. The company announced that its a wholly owned subsidiary, TP Solar, has secured a contract worth Rs 632 crore from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for the supply of 292.5 MWp domestic content requirement (DCR) solar modules.
Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) declined 2.25%. The company has received a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) from Central Railway for a project valued at Rs 135.66 crore.
Biocon fell 2%. The company has announced the launch of its GLP-1 peptide Liraglutide for diabetes and obesity in the United Kingdom (U.K.).