Wild Day On Dalal Street: Sensex Closes 279 Points Lower, Nifty Gives Up 11,150

Domestic stock markets nosedived on Friday, before recovering most of those losses towards the end of the session. BSE benchmark index Sensex closed 279 points, or 0.8 per cent, to end at 36,841 while the NSE Nifty settled 91.25 points to end at 11,143. During the session, the equity indices plunged 3 per cent amid a sharp selloff across sectors, led by banking and financial services shares. Fears of cash crunch among non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) triggered a panic selloff in the markets, according to analysts. 

Here are 10 things to know:

1. Top laggards on the Nifty 50 were Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Bajaj Finance, closing with losses of 29.5 per cent, 8.5 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.

2. Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) closed 45 per cent lower, leading the losses in the NBFC and housing finance pack. Earlier on Friday, DHFL shares fell as much as 55 per cent to hit their lowest intraday level recorded since January 23, 2017. The fall erased $1.12 billion from DHFL investors' wealth.

3. Sudden plunge in shares of non-banking financial companies, especially housing finance companies, witnessed in afternoon trade triggered a panic selloff, according to analysts. The Nifty Financial Services index fell 1 per cent.

4. "Markets corrected as there was fear that NBFCs may face liquidity trouble, fearing that their interest rates may have gone up," BSE and NSE broker Dipan Mehta told NDTV.

5. Losses in Yes Bank, which declined the most among banking stocks, came two days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed Rana Kapoor to continue as the private sector bank's managing director and CEO till January 31, 2019 and asked him to step down after the end of that term.

6. The Nifty Bank declined 2.6 per cent. PNB, Bank of Baroda and and IDFC Bank finished between 3.5 per cent and 7.6 per cent lower.

7. Overall breadth of the market was sharply negative, with 2,106 stocks on the NSE finishing the day lower against 586 advancers.

8. "Now the fear has started to come into the market. Once strength is gone, it will not recover fast," said AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital Markets.

9. The Sensex and Nifty registered their biggest weekly fall since August 11, 2017.

10. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net sellers and offloaded equities worth Rs 2,184.55 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth a net Rs 1,201.30 crore on Wednesday, provisional data showed. Markets were closed on Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)