The benchmark BSE Sensex recovered slightly from intraday low of 27,719.92 but was still trading down by over 450 points as India conducted surgical strikes on terror launch pads last night across the Line of Control (LoC) and inflicted significant casualties and heavy damages.
Lt General Ranbir Singh told reporters the strikes were launched on Wednesday based on “very specific and credible information that some terrorist units had positioned themselves to infiltrate”.
Singh said the strikes had caused significant casualties, and that he had he had called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him of the operation.
An army source said that the strikes were launched across the Line of Control, or de facto border between the two countries.
At 3.00 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 458.10 points or 1.62 per cent at 27,834.71 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 145.2 points or 1.66 per cent at 8,599.95.
The Sensex touched an intraday high of 28,475.57 and intraday low of 27,719.92.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index plunged the most by 6.47 per cent, power 4.07 per cent, metal 3.21 per cent and healthcare 3.15 per cent.
Major Sensex losers were Adani Ports (-5.3%), ICICI Bank (-4.83%), Sun Pharma (-3.58%), Tata Steel (-3.12%) and Tata Motors (-2.75%), while the only gainer was TCS (+0.41%).
Closer home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs. 73.83 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Oil shares pulled regional stock markets higher on Thursday after OPEC members agreed to curb output in a surprise deal, though investors were wary of chasing markets higher as the US presidential election neared.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.9 per cent by mid-morning, thanks to a bounce in energy shares, but other markets such as Hong Kong were trading near the day’s lows after an early jump.
[Source:- Business Line]
