Market Bloodbath as Sensex Nosedives 1,000 Points, Nifty Below 22,300

Market Crash: Benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, dive over 1.3% as geopolitical uncertainty and domestic macros continue to weigh down investor sentiment. All sectors were trading in red on Friday with Nifty IT bearing the worst loss, down by over 3.7% during the morning trading session.

At 10:10 am, BSE Sensex was trading at 73,668.19 level, down by over 944 points. NSE Nifty 50, followed the trail and dropped over 295 points, trading around 22,250 level.

Besides Reliance, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, all stocks from the Sensex pack were trading in red. Continued FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) selling, weak domestic macros and lingering uncertainty owing to Trump's trade tariffs altogether weighed down investor sentiment heavily.

Why markets are falling?

"Stock markets dislike uncertainty, and uncertainty has been on the rise ever since Trump was elected the US president. The spate of tariff announcements by Trump has been impacting markets and the latest announcement of additional 10% tariff on China is a confirmation of the market view that Trump will use the initial months of his presidency to threaten countries with tariffs and then negotiate for a settlement favourable to the US.

"How China responds to the latest round of tariffs remains to be seen," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 556.56 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.47% to $73.69 a barrel.

"Asian equities fell Friday after heavy selling on Wall Street as traders grappled with underwhelming Nvidia Corp results, further details on US tariffs and mixed economic data," Ameya Ranadive, Chartered Market Technician, CFTe, Sr Technical Analyst, StoxBox, said.

The BSE Sensex eked out marginal gains of 10.31 points or 0.01% settling at 74,612.43 on Thursday. The Nifty slipped 2.50 points or 0.01% to 22,545.05, registering its seventh day of decline.

"Asian markets also experienced declines, with losses of up to 2.5%, after President Trump confirmed that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are set to take effect on March 4 and that an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports will be imposed," Vikas Jain, Head of Research, Reliance Securities, said.

(With inputs from PTI)