The key equity benchmarks traded with major losses in the afternoon trade as investors remained cautious amid FII selling and weak global cues. The Nifty dropped below the 25,300 level.
Realty, FMCG and private bank shares declined while IT and media shares advanced.
At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 592.64 points or 0.72% to 81,655.60. The Nifty 50 index tumbled 198.10 points or 0.78% to 25,295.20.
In the broader market, the BSE 150 MidCap Index shed 0.73% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index fell 0.73%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,543 shares rose and 2,489 shares fell. A total of 189 shares were unchanged.
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rallied 4.05% to 13.59.
Gainers & Losers:
Trent (up 1.57%), HCL Technologies (up 1.30%), Infosys (up 1.23%), Apollo Hospital Enterprises (up 0.95%) and Eternal (up 0.65%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.
Bharti Airtel (down 2.99%), HDFC Life Insurance (down 2.62%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 2.43%), Shriram Finance (down 2.23%) and Indigo (down 2.23%) were the major Nifty50 losers.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Netweb Technologies India gained 4.10% after announcing a strategic partnership with Vertiv to jointly develop and validate GPU-based AI infrastructure solutions. The leading Indian high-end computing solutions provider will collaborate with Vertiv to engineer and validate its in-house GPU compute platforms alongside Vertiv's integrated, end-to-end AI data center solutions.
Gem Aromatics advanced 1.01% after the company's subsidiary, Krystal Ingredients has commenced the production of additional products, including Gem Cool 5 (Cooling Agents) and Safranal (Citral Derivatives) at its Dahej facility, Gujarat.
Kirloskar Brothers (KBL) declined 1.41%. The company said that it has secured orders worth Rs 214 crore from Adani Power and its subsidiaries for supply and installation of pump systems for thermal power projects. The scope of work includes supply and erection, testing and commissioning of circulating water pumps (concrete volute pump technology) and auxiliary cooling water pumps, along with associated electrical and control systems. The projects are located in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.
Steel Exchange India advanced 3.72% after the company announced that its board will meet on Wednesday (04 March 2026) to consider a proposal to raise funds amounting to Rs 350 crore.
Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services shed 0.41%. The company has entered into multiple agreements to provide its corporate expense management solutions to leading domestic entities. The company will offer Zaggle Corporate Expense Cards to employees and associates of Chennai Super Kings and Superking Ventures. Each contract is valid for a period of one year. Separately, Zaggle has signed a five-year agreement with Saurashtra Cement to deploy its Zaggle Save platform for employee expense management and benefits administration.
Global Markets:
European markets traded mixed on Friday as investors awaited key economic data releases across the region.
Inflation figures from Germany, France, and Spain are set to be published, alongside unemployment data from Germany and France. Investors are also watching for the latest U.K. housing price data, which could provide further insight into the strength of the property market and broader economic conditions.
Asian market traded mixed on Friday, after U.S. stocks declined overnight as Nvidia shares tumbled despite a quarterly earnings beat.
In Asian tech stocks, SK Hynix, which is a key supplier of high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia, dipped over 2%. Samsung Electronics, which has been a decades-old partner of Nvidia, was down 0.69%.
Gold prices held broadly steady on Friday, with investors digesting the previous day's U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, while the dollar, hovering near three-week highs, pressured the yellow metal.
An Omani mediator of U.S. and Iran nuclear talks has reportedly given an optimistic readout over the latest round of negotiations, but uncertainty still hung over energy markets with no sign of a breakthrough that would avert potential U.S. strikes.
Following these developments, Brent crude futures settled down 10 cents, or 0.14%, to $70.75 a barrel.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 pulled back after the latest results from tech titan Nvidia and software giant Salesforce failed to boost the broader market.
The broad market index fell 0.54% to end at 6,908.86, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.18% and closed at 22,878.38. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 17.05 points, or 0.03%, to settle at 49,499.20.
Nvidia shares fell more than 5%, even after the chip giant posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that were higher than widely reported forescasts.
On the other end, Salesforce, which has been one of the biggest victims of recent artificial intelligence disruption fears, rose 4% after the software company's latest quarterly results were higher than widely reported forecasts on the top and bottom lines. However, the company issued a disappointing fiscal 2027 revenue forecast.
Sentiment has been fragile in software and cybersecurity stocks this year as worries remain about the rapidly developing capabilities of AI products that could interfere with incumbent software vendors' businesses.
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