Sensex Tanks 983 Pts, Nifty Breaks 14,650

The equity markets fell over 1000 points on Friday, April 30 led by a selloff in heavyweight Financial and Banking stocks. The private lenders were among the worst hit in the day's trade among all other banks as participants went heavy on selling after a four-day winning streak.

HDFC Bank, HDFC, and ICICI Bank dragged the Sensex to close lower by 983.58 points at 48,782.36 with just four advances in the 30-share pack. Shares of Reliance also tumbled nearly two percent ahead of its Q4 results. The Nifty-50 closed lower by 236.80 points at 14,631.10.

The Nifty Bank index declined over 1000 points in the day's trade as the private lenders were among the worst hit in the markets today. Shares of ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC Bank declined 3-4 per cent each in the day's trade. 

Barring the Pharma sector, almost all other sectors witnessed selling pressure throughout the day with the financial sector slipping over three per cent, and the Auto and PSU Bank shedding over a per cent each. Shares of M&M(-2.85 per cent) and Tata Motors(-2.67 per cent) were the top drags in the Auto sector, while SBI (-1.64 per cent) and Indian Bank (-1.65 per cent) declined the most in the PSU Bank space.

However, ONGC, Coal India, and Divis Labs ended among the top gainers of the index amid volatility as they gained nearly four per cent each on Friday.

Tracking the weekly performance, Sensex ended the week higher by 1.89 per cent or 903 points as the four-day winning streak lifted the sentiment and buying interest among the investors. Similarly, the Nifty-50 advanced 2.02 per cent in the current week. 

However, analysts are of a view that the impact of the second wave has not rushed the markets and the benchmarks are dancing on cues from global markets and earnings from India Inc.

Global Markets

The U.S markets closed on a higher note after the government stated that the US economy has grown by 6.4 per cent in this quarter, while the Asian markets were trading in the red since the morning as the negative sentiments reflected the impact on the market.