Taking Stock | Sensex falls 326 points, Nifty at around 17,300 ahead of GDP data

The Indian market ended lower for the eighth straight session on February 28 amid selling in the metal, oil & gas, healthcare and information technology names. Investors also turned cautious ahead of the GDP numbers to be released later in the day.

At close, the Sensex was down 326.23 points, or 0.55 percent, at 58,962.12, and the Nifty was down 88.70 points, or 0.51 percent, at 17,304.

After a muted start, the market remained range-bound in the morning but selling in the afternoon pulled the indices down, with Nifty slipping to the day’s low of 17,250.

In February, the Sensex shed a percent and the Nifty50 2 percent.

Also Read: Govt to release second advance GDP estimate for 2022-23 today

Stocks and Sectors

Cipla, Hindalco Industries, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ONGC and Tata Steel were among the biggest losers on the Nifty. Gainers included Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Asian Paints, Britannia Industries and Power Grid Corporation.

Among sectors, the Nifty pharma index shed 1.3 percent and the energy index was down a percent. Metal and information technology each ended 0.8 percent down. However, auto and PSU Bank indices rose 0.4 percent each.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	81,773.66	-153.09	-0.19%
Nifty 50	25,046.15	-62.15	-0.25%
Nifty Bank	56,018.25	-221.10	-0.39%

Nifty 50 25,046.15 -62.15 (-0.25%)

Wed, Oct 08, 2025

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
Titan Company	3,565.60	147.40	+4.31%

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
Tata Motors	681.55	-16.50	-2.36%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty IT	35232.30	522.85	+1.51%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty Auto	26522.40	-411.15	-1.53%

Broader indices outperformed the benchmarks, with the BSE midcap rising 0.6 percent and the smallcap index ending 0.4 percent higher.

On the BSE, information technology, metal, oil & gas and healthcare indices fell 0.8-1.2 percent but auto, realty and power were up 0.5-1.2 percent.

Gillette India, Shaily Engineering, Trident, Rolta, Nahar Spinning Mills, Sutlej Textiles, Venky's and SMS Pharmaceuticals were among the stocks to touch their 52-week low on the BSE.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 300 percent was seen in Cipla, Biocon and HCL Technologies.

A short build-up was seen in Vedanta, Cipla and Alkem Laboratories, while a long build-up was seen in Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports and Zee Entertainment Enterprises.

Also Read: Midcaps and smallcaps still little expensive, says Vikaas M Sachdeva of Sundaram Alternates

Outlook for March 1

Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas

The Nifty opened flat and continued to see selling pressure to close the day on a negative note for the eighth consecutive trading session.

The daily lower Bollinger band is expanding and prices are trading along the lower band, indicating that the fall is likely to continue.

On the hourly charts, the 20-hour moving average (17,383) is acting as a stiff resistance and any bounce towards it is being sold into.

The Nifty closed below the 200-day moving average (17,384), which is also a sign of weakness. The hourly momentum indicator has a positive divergence along with a positive crossover, which indicates that a bounce is possible.

The pullback, if any, is likely to be just a relief rally and unlikely to result in a trend reversal.

Overall, the downtrend is still intact and any bounce should be used as an opportunity to create fresh short positions. On the downside, we expect the Nifty to target levels of 17,200 from a short-term perspective.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities

Weak sentiment continued to prevail as traders wary of the current headwinds unwounded their position in commodity stocks such as metals and oil & gas.

The market is already in an oversold position but India's high valuation compared to other markets seems to have caught up with the investors who are steadily cutting their long positions.

Technically for the bulls, 17,350 could be the immediate trigger level and above the same the index could move up to 17,425-17,480.

As long as the index trades below 17,350, the correction wave is likely to continue and slip to 17,250-17,200.

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