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Informist, Thursday, Jun. 12, 2025

By Akash Mandal

MUMBAI – The benchmark indices fell sharply in afternoon trade to end lower Thursday, ending a six-session winning run for the Nifty 50. Analysts said the sudden sharp fall was unexpected, and while they were unsure what had caused the drop, they put it down to "sentiment" with a potential conflict looming once again in West Asia and the crash of a London-bound Air India flight near Ahmedabad airport. The Nifty 50 closed below the 25000-point level after four sessions and slipped below the 24900-point level after three sessions.

Thursday, an Air India flight crashed near a residential area in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, soon after taking off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The plane was carrying 242 people on board, including 12 crew, media reports said. Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said he had asked aviation agencies to investigate and take action regarding the "shocking" incident. Following the crash, shares of Interglobe Aviation extended their decline to end nearly 3% down. Spicejet, which was up over 1%, erased its gains and ended nearly 2% lower.

The crash came amid growing fears of tensions flaring up again in West Asia. Media reports said the US is evacuating non-essential personnel from Iraq following heightened security risks. Iran earlier threatened to hit US bases in the region if both parties failed to agree on a nuclear deal. The US and Iran have held five rounds of talks since April as President Donald Trump seeks an agreement that would place constraints on Iran's uranium enrichment programme.

The Nifty 50 ended at 24888.20 points, down 253.20 points or 1%. The BSE Sensex closed at 81691.98 points, down 823.16 points or 1%. "The current trend is too weak," Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities, said. "The market should have risen with a boom after such good news by the RBI (rate cut and CRR cut)... however, gains were relatively small, which shows the weak mood," he said.

Heavyweights such as Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank ended lower and were the biggest drag on the benchmark indices. The 50-stock index was around 0.2-0.4% lower for most of the session but plunged over 1% at its intraday low. The broader market indices also ended 1-2% lower.

Tata Motors ended nearly 3% down and was the worst hit in the Nifty 50 index. Analysts have been concerned about the stock owing to sluggish growth in the company's personal vehicles segment and loss of market share. HSBC values the company's commercial vehicles business at a 15% discount to Ashok Leyland due to loss of market share and a weak margin profile, and values its passenger vehicle business at a 20% discount to industry leader Maruti Suzuki India, CNBC-TV18 reported.

Coal India ended over 2% lower after Nuvama Institutional Equities downgraded the stock to 'reduce' from 'hold' and cut the target price by 9% to INR 367. Nuvama expects the company's volumes to remain weak and sees it losing market share to other players. 

Barring the Nifty Healthcare index, which eked out a thin gain after slipping briefly into the red, all sectoral indices ended lower amid the broad-based selloff in the market. The healthcare index extended its winning run for the seventh session. Analysts said falling prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients and higher tariffs on Chinese medications by the US have been tailwinds for the sector. Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Max Healthcare Institute, and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise ended 1-2% higher.

Stocks of most oil marketing companies also plunged following a rise in crude oil prices late Wednesday due to the bubbling tensions in West Asia. Hindustan Petroleum Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. each ended around 5% lower. On the other hand, some oil exploration companies such as Oil India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp. ended higher.

Among other stocks, CE Info Systems ended over 9% lower and was the worst hit in the Nifty 500 after 2.8 million shares of the company were sold through block deals on the exchanges at a 7% discount to its closing price Wednesday. Media reports suggested PhonePe was the likely seller. One 97 Communications ended nearly 7% lower after the finance ministry dismissed reports of the likely introduction of a merchant discount rate on transactions on the Unified Payments Interface.

On the other hand, Tanla Platforms ended over 9% higher and was the top gainer in the 500-stock index ahead of the company's board meeting Monday to consider a buyback of shares. 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 7 rose and 43 fell 

* Of the Sensex stocks, 3 rose and 27 fell

* On the NSE, 783 stocks rose, 2,112 fell, and 74 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,282 stocks rose, 2,729 fell, and 140 were unchanged

* Nifty Healthcare: up 0.1%; Nifty Pharma: down 0.1%; Nifty Realty: down 2%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 81691.98, down 823.16 points or 1%        Nifty 50: 24888.20, down 253.20 points or 1%

End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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