Equity benchmark indices declined in early trade on Friday (October 4, 2024), extending their previous day's sharp slump amid unabated foreign fund outflows and spiralling conflict in the Middle East.

Falling for the fifth day running, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex dropped 354.67 points to 82,142.43. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty declined 114.1 points to 25,136.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finserv were the major laggards. HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹15,243.27 crore on Thursday (October 3, 2024), according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory. Markets in mainland China are closed due to a holiday.

The U.S. markets ended lower on Thursday (October 3, 2024).

“The last three days have witnessed huge FII sales of ₹30,614 crore in the cash market. FIIs are moving money from expensive India to cheap Hong Kong on expectations that the monetary and fiscal stimulus being implemented by the Chinese authorities will stimulate the Chinese economy and improve earnings of Chinese companies. It remains to be seen how Chinese recovery hopes play out,” said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.06% to $77.57 a barrel. Falling for the fourth straight session on Thursday (October 3, 2024), the BSE benchmark tumbled 1,769.19 points or 2.10%, to settle at 82,497.10. During the day, it plummeted 1,832.27 points or 2.17%, to 82,434.02.

The Nifty slumped 546.80 points or 2.12%, to 25,250.10.

"In yesterday's session, FIIs were net sellers, offloading ₹15,243 crore, as Nifty faced a sharp sell-off due to fragile market sentiment, sensitive to news from the Middle East," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Limited, said.