Markets tank nearly 1% on selling in pharma, Sensex sinks 733 pts

Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled nearly 1 per cent on Friday, marking their sixth consecutive day of decline, following heavy selling in pharma and IT shares as US President Donald Trump announced 100 per cent duties on branded drugs from next month.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 733.22 points or 0.90 per cent to settle at a three-week low of 80,426.46. During the day, it dropped 827.27 points or 1 per cent to 80,332.41.

The 50-share NSE Nifty tumbled 236.15 points or 0.95 per cent to an over three-week low of 24,654.70. The index has been on a decline since September 19, tanking over 3 per cent in six straight sessions. Sensex has tumbled by 2,587.50 points or 3.16 per cent in six sessions to Friday.

Most pharma shares dropped, dragging the BSE Healthcare index down by 2.14 per cent after Trump’s move to impose 100 per cent import tariffs on branded and patented pharmaceutical drugs from October 1. Wockhardt shares tanked 9.4 per cent. Laurus Labs, Biocon, Zydus Life, Glenmark, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s also declined.

Among Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra, Eternal, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech were the biggest laggards.

However, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, ITC and Reliance Industries were the gainers.

The BSE smallcap gauge tanked 2.05 per cent and midcap index lost 1.96 per cent.

All sectoral indices ended lower. Telecom dropped the most by 2.69 per cent, followed by BSE Focused IT (2.43 per cent), IT (2.41 per cent), consumer durables (2.34 per cent), tech (2.03 per cent), commodities (1.91 per cent), metal (1.90 per cent), services (1.73 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.70 per cent).

As many as 3,100 stocks declined while 1,041 advanced and 139 remained unchanged on the BSE. Since last Thursday, the BSE benchmark has lost 2,587.5 points or 3.11 per cent, and the Nifty tumbled 768.9 points or 3 per cent.