Equity benchmarks slipped into negative territory on Friday, giving up early gains as foreign fund outflows and uncertainty surrounding potential US policy actions weighed on investor sentiment, with market participants bracing for heightened volatility ahead of a truncated trading week marked by the Republic Day holiday on Monday and the derivatives expiry on Tuesday.
At 1.31 pm, Sensex traded 649.17 pts or 0.79 per cent lower at 81,658.20. Nifty 50 tanked by 210.75 pts or 0.83 per cent to 25,079.15.
In today’s session, BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 have plunged 860 pts and 278 pts, respectively.
Both the midcap and smallcap indices slid more than 1 per cent, underscoring the broad-based weakness in the market.
Among sectoral gauges, only IT and FMCG showed resilience, while all others traded in the red, with realty, media, banking, and oil and gas stocks leading the losses by 1-3 per cent.
Dr Reddy’s Lab lead NIfty 50, Adani stocks drag
Among Nifty 50 components, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Tech Mahindra and TCS led the gainers, while Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Eternal, InterGlobe Aviation, Jio Financial and Power Grid dragged the most.
A total of 3,146 stocks were traded on the National Stock Exchange at the time of writing, with 885 advancing, 2,173 declining and 88 remaining unchanged.
Market weakness was also reflected in the number of stocks hitting fresh lows, as 218 touched their 52-week low compared with just 32 reaching a 52-week high, while 64 stocks were locked in the upper circuit and 65 slipped into the lower circuit.
Under the midcap segment, National Aluminium, Ashok Leyland, APL Apollo, Fortis and Voltasa soared 1-3 per cent, while Paytm, ATGL, HUDCO and Premier Energies slumoed 5-7 per cent. A majority of them reacted to Q3 performance.
Among the smallcap basket, Bandhan Bank, Swan Corp, Chambal Fertilizers, Hindustan Copper and Go Digit gained 2-6 per cent, while Poonawalla, PNB Housing, Kajaria Ceramics, Reliance Power and Anant Raj fell 5-6 per cent.
Published on January 23, 2026
