Stock Market Plunges After Three-Day Rally; Sensex Falls 1,236 Points
Indian stock markets ended sharply lower on February 19, with Sensex dropping 1,236 points and Nifty falling 365 points amid heavy foreign selling and global uncertainties.
Prasanth Subramani
After three consecutive days of gains, the Indian stock market ended sharply lower today (February 19).
The BSE Sensex opened at 83,969.82 and fell nearly 300 points during early trade. By the end of the session, the Sensex plunged 1,236.11 points (1.48%) to close at 82,498.14, having dropped as much as 1,400 points intraday.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 365.00 points (1.41%) to settle at 25,454.35.
All 30 stocks in the Sensex index ended in the red. Shares of IndiGo, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Trent, and Bharat Electronics fell up to 3.2%.
The Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices also declined by 1.59% and 1.27%, respectively.
Sector-wise, Nifty Realty, Media, and Auto indices fell about 2%, making them the worst-performing sectors. FMCG, private banks, and PSU banks also dropped more than 1%, with all sectors ending in negative territory.
Investors reportedly lost nearly ₹8 lakh crore in market value during today’s sell-off.
Why Did the Market Fall?
The sharp decline is mainly attributed to heavy foreign investor selling. Rising crude oil prices, geopolitical tensions between the US and Iran, weakness in the Indian rupee, and uncertainty over US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts also weighed on the market.
In February alone, foreign investors sold IT stocks worth ₹10,956 crore. Increased selling pressure in IT stocks, partly due to the impact of artificial intelligence on the sector, contributed to the market downturn.
US stock markets also ended lower yesterday (February 18), adding to negative global sentiment.
