Closing Bell: Market fall continues, Nifty slips below 16300

Domestic equity bourses Sensex and Nifty 50 fell in three out of four sessions in the truncated week amid an increase in crude prices and escalation of geopolitical tensions after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Indian market extended fall for the third straight session on Friday as the Russia-Ukraine conflict intensified. Ukraine's state emergency reported a fire that broke out in a building near the largest nuclear power plant in Europe during clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces. But was extinguished later. Both the headline indices fell to their lowest in seven months, tracking a sell-off in global equities.

Crude oil hit its highest level in a decade this week and prices are set to post their biggest weekly gains since the mid-2020, with the US benchmark up more than 18% and Brent at 13%.

At the closing bell on March 4, the Sensex is down 768.87 points or 1.40% at 54,333.81, and the Nifty was down 252.60 points or 1.53% at 16,245.40. On the market breadth, around 1204 shares have advanced, 2075 shares declined, and 96 shares are unchanged.

Top Nifty losers today are Titan Company, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors. Top gainers include Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma and UltraTech Cement.

In other news, GAIL will consider the recommendation for the payment of the second interim dividend for financial year 2021-22 on March 11. Shares of the company India slumped over 2.6%, the steepest intraday decline in over a week, post the announcement.

On a sectoral basis, except IT all other indices ended in the red with auto, metals, power, capital goods, realty down over 2-3%. In the broad market, the BSE midcap index shed 2.3% and smallcap index fell 1.6%.