Indian stock markets faced a major setback on Friday, May 5th, with the Sensex and Nifty 50 recording their biggest single-day fall in two months. The Sensex fell by 695 points to 61,054, while the Nifty 50 slipped by 187 points to 18,069. The financial sector led the decline, with the Nifty Bank index falling over 1,000 points or 2.3 percent, marking the sharpest fall since January 27. HDFC Bank and HDFC were the biggest losers, both slipping by 6 percent each, the largest decline in three years. HDFC Bank contributed 85 percent to Nifty Bank's fall, while HDFC dragged Nifty down by 172 points.
IndusInd was also among the top Nifty losers, seeing a fall of over 5 percent. Meanwhile, metal stocks remained weak on falling prices, with Hindalco and Tata Steel slipping by 2 percent each. Titan saw buying in Friday's session as its March quarter earnings came in-line with estimates. Auto stocks, on the other hand, largely closed higher, with Hero and TVS reporting a healthy set of earnings.
Federal Bank saw a decline of 8 percent as its NII and Margin came below estimates, while Bharat Forge closed with minor cuts following in-line March quarter earnings. Chola Investment continued to see buying, while Dabur fell 5 percent after results. Despite the markets closing in the red, BSE companies gained a market cap of Rs. 35,000 crore.
The market breadth favored declines, with the advance-decline ratio at 1:2. This was the first time the Nifty 50 index saw a movement of 1 percent or more since March 30. Investors are now eagerly awaiting financial results from India Inc for domestic cues, with Britannia and Marico due to post their earnings later in the day. Bharat Forge reported its March quarter numbers earlier in the day, while Adani Enterprises, Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor, and others reported their quarterly numbers on Thursday.