Domestic equity benchmarks ended sharply lower on Friday, pressured by continued foreign institutional investor outflows and escalating geopolitical tensions. Investor sentiment remained fragile amid rising hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan and lingering uncertainty over US-Iran talks.

The Nifty slipped below the 25,200 mark, weighed down by losses in auto and FMCG stocks. The index opened on a weak note and stayed under sustained selling pressure through most of the session. A fresh wave of selling in the final hours intensified the decline, pulling the benchmark closer to the day's low by the closing bell.

The S&P BSE Sensex tanked 961.42 points or 1.17% to 81,287.19. The Nifty 50 index dropped 317.90 points or 1.25% to 25,178.65.

Bharti Airtel (down 2.47%), ICICI Bank (down 1.82%) and HDFC Bank (down 1.24%) were major Nifty drags today.

The broader market outperformed the key equity indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index tumbled 1.09% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slumped 0.86%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,660 shares rose and 2,528 shares fell. A total of 196 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 4.89% to 13.70.

Economy:

India's economy expanded 7.8% in the December quarter, beating expectations and reflecting the impact of a revamped GDP calculation framework aimed at improving accuracy. Growth for the previous quarter has been revised up to 8.4% from 8.2% under the new series, while the full-year FY26 estimate has been raised to 7.6% from 7.4%.

In January, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation introduced changes to the GDP, inflation and industrial production series, including shifting the GDP base year to FY23 from 2012, to enhance data quality and policy relevance.

Pakistan and Afghanistan conflict:

Pakistan has launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, accusing it of unprovoked aggression along the border as tensions sharply escalated between the two sides. Declaring what it described as an open war, Pakistan carried out overnight airstrikes across Afghanistan, targeting major cities including Kabul and Kandahar. Islamabad said the strikes were a strong and effective response to cross-border firing and claimed that 133 people were killed in the operation.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper rose 0.15% to 6.680 compared with the previous session close of 6.690.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 90.0600 compared with its close of 90.9150 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 2 April 2026 settlement rose 0.34% to Rs 160,254.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.04% to 97.76.

The United States 10-year bond yield shed 0.65% to 3.991.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2026 settlement rose 66 cents or 0.93% to $71.41 a barrel.

Global Markets:

The US Dow Jones index futures are currently down by 280 points, signaling a weak opening for US stocks today.

Most European shares advanced on Friday as traders parsed through several earnings reports and economic data at the end of the week.

Inflation figures from Germany, France, and Spain are set to be published, alongside unemployment data from Germany and France. Investors are also watching for the latest U.K. housing price data, which could provide further insight into the strength of the property market and broader economic conditions.

Most Asian markets ended higher, supported by regional buying interest. This came despite a weak overnight session on Wall Street, where U.S. indices closed lower after Nvidia shares tumbled, even though the company reported quarterly earnings beat.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 pulled back after the latest results from tech titan Nvidia and software giant Salesforce failed to boost the broader market.

The broad market index fell 0.54%, while the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.18%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.03%.

Nvidia shares fell more than 5%, even after the chip giant posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that were higher than widely reported forecasts.

On the other end, Salesforce, which has been one of the biggest victims of recent artificial intelligence disruption fears, rose 4% after the software company's latest quarterly results were higher than widely reported forecasts on the top and bottom lines. However, the company issued a disappointing fiscal 2027 revenue forecast.

Sentiment has been fragile in software and cybersecurity stocks this year as worries remain about the rapidly developing capabilities of AI products that could interfere with incumbent software vendors' businesses.

New Listing:

Shares of Gaudium IVF and Women Health settled at Rs 80.48 on the BSE, representing a premium of 1.87% compared with the issue price of Rs 79.

The stock was listed at Rs 83, reflecting a premium of 5.06% to the issue price. The stock has hit a high of Rs 87.15 and a low of Rs 79.05. On the BSE, 5.96 lakh shares of the company were traded in the counter.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vishal Mega Mart declined 7.68% to Rs 117.80 after multiple block deals resulted in nearly 14% of the company's equity changing hands on the exchanges. Samayat Services LLP, which held a 54.09% stake in Vishal Mega Mart as of 31 December 2025, planned to offload up to 30.5 crore shares at Rs 115 each.

Netweb Technologies India gained 4.36% after announcing a strategic partnership with Vertiv to jointly develop and validate GPU-based AI infrastructure solutions. The leading Indian high-end computing solutions provider will collaborate with Vertiv to engineer and validate its in-house GPU compute platforms alongside Vertiv's integrated, end-to-end AI data center solutions.

MSTC rose 1.95% after it secured a contract from Coal India to provide end-to-end services for Non-Regulated Sector (NRS) linkage auctions. The mandate is valid for a period of three years.

Kirloskar Brothers (KBL) shed 0.55%. The company said that it has secured orders worth Rs 214 crore from Adani Power and its subsidiaries for supply and installation of pump systems for thermal power projects. The scope of work includes supply and erection, testing and commissioning of circulating water pumps (concrete volute pump technology) and auxiliary cooling water pumps, along with associated electrical and control systems. The projects are located in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

Steel Exchange India slipped 1.08%. The company announced that its board will meet on Wednesday (04 March 2026) to consider a proposal to raise funds amounting to Rs 350 crore.

Zaggle Prepaid Ocean Services slipped 1.33%. The company has entered into multiple agreements to provide its corporate expense management solutions to leading domestic entities. The company will offer Zaggle Corporate Expense Cards to employees and associates of Chennai Super Kings and Superking Ventures. Each contract is valid for a period of one year. Separately, Zaggle has signed a five-year agreement with Saurashtra Cement to deploy its Zaggle Save platform for employee expense management and benefits administration.

Mamata Machinery rose 0.43%. The company announced that it has secured its first Rest of the World (ROW) order for its Packaging Machinery Segment from a customer in South Africa.

Indian Oil Corporation rose 0.56%. The company has announced that a meeting of its board of directors is scheduled for Friday, 6 March 2026, to consider the declaration of a second interim dividend for the financial year 2025'26.

Mastek shed 0.35%. The company announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Mastek (UK) has secured a five-year engineering, integration, and product development contract from the UK's Home Office, with an overall budget of approximately euro 49 million ($67 million).

Huhtamaki India declined 1.68%. The company said that its board has approved the appointment of Anil Kaul as chief financial officer (CFO) of the company with effect from 27 February 2026.

Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) fell 1.17%. The company said that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NTPC to jointly explore opportunities in coal and lignite gasification and downstream utilisation.

Jio Financial Services shed 0.31%. The company said that it has subscribed to 3,35,71,923 equity shares of Rs 10 each of Jio Credit (JCL), a wholly owned subsidiary, for cash at a premium of Rs 585.70 per equity share, aggregating to Rs 1,999.88 crore.

NBCC (India) lost 1.39%. The company has received work orders worth approximately Rs 775.27 crore from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for the comprehensive redevelopment of staff quarters in New Delhi.

Dee Development Engineers dropped 2.57%. The company has secured a letter of intent (LoI) for manufacturing alloy steel seamless pipes at its new forged seamless pipe plant in Anjar, Gujarat.

IPO Update:

Omnitech Engineering received bids for 2,16,02,526 shares as against 1,89,09,890 shares on offer, according to stock exchange data at 16:57 IST on Friday (27 February 2026). The issue was subscribed 1.14 times.

The issue opened for bidding on 25 February 2026 and it will close on 27 February 2026. The price band of the IPO is fixed between Rs 216 and 227 per share.

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