Sensex, Nifty fall for 2nd day on selling in Axis Bank, Indo-Pak border tensions

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined sharply on Friday (April 25, 2025) due to selling in Axis Bank and growing tensions along the Indo-Pak border following the terror attack at Pahalgam in Jammu & Kashmir.

Wiping out early gains, the 30-share BSE barometer tanked 588.90 points or 0.74% to settle at 79,212.53. During the day, it dropped 1,195.62 points or 1.49% to 78,605.81.

Falling for the second day, the NSE Nifty tumbled 207.35 points or 0.86% to 24,039.35.

Experts said worries over growing geopolitical tensions after Tuesday’s Pahalgam terror attack weighed on market sentiment.

All sectoral indices except for IT index closed in the red while midcap and smallcap indices dropped more than 2% due to profit taking.

“Investor sentiment turned cautious amid escalating tensions along the Indo-Pak border. Mid and smallcap stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off, driven by their elevated valuations and growing concerns over potential earnings downgrades following a muted start to the earnings season,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

Among Sensex shares, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, Eternal, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and NTPC were the biggest laggards.

Axis Bank declined over 3% after the country’s third largest private sector lender reported a sharp rise in loan loss provisions and a steep fall in the trading income for the last quarter of 2024-25. The bank’s profit declined marginally in the March quarter to ₹7,117 crore, from ₹7,130 crore in the year-ago period.

However, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever and ICICI Bank were the gainers.

Despite Nifty opening at a higher level on Friday, geopolitical tensions with the neighbouring nation have led to the drop in the index, Ajay Garg, CEO, SMC Global Securities, said.

“In the last few days, Nifty has also revived to 24,000 points with FII buying, banking stocks rally, and expectations of a positive outcome from the US-India trade talks. Along with the geopolitical tensions, profit-booking by investors also added to today’s market drop,” Garg added.

“The heightened geopolitical uncertainty has led investors to adopt a risk-off approach, triggering profit-booking after the recent sharp rally. Furthermore, the markets appeared slightly overstretched following the vertical rise, prompting traders to reduce exposure,” Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

The BSE smallcap gauge tanked 2.56% and midcap dropped 2.44%.

Among BSE sectoral indices, services dropped 3.11%, utilities (2.96%), realty (2.87%), power (2.77%), consumer discretionary (2.28%), industrials (2.19%) and capital goods (2.06%).

IT and BSE Focused IT ended higher.

As many as 3,246 stocks declined while 719 advanced and 119 remained unchanged on the BSE.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi index, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled in the positive territory. Shanghai SSE Composite ended marginally lower.

Markets in Europe were trading higher.

U.S. markets ended significantly higher on Thursday. Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.74%, S&P 500 surged 2.03% and Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.23%.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹8,250.53 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.50% to $66.24 a barrel.

On Thursday, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex declined 315.06 points or 0.39% to settle at 79,801.43 on Thursday. The Nifty went down by 82.25 points or 0.34% to 24,246.70.