Sensex Drops 344 Points, Nifty Dips Under 24,500; Bharti Airtel Sheds 2.5% After Block Deal

Sensex Falls 344 Points, Nifty Slips Below 24,500 as Bharti Airtel Drops on $1 Billion Block Deal.

Domestic equity markets opened lower on Friday, with the BSE Sensex down 344.5 points at 80,280.75 and the NSE Nifty slipping 96.3 points to 24,499.2.

The biggest drag came from Bharti Airtel, which fell nearly 2.5% to ₹1,877 after Indian Continent Investment Ltd, backed by billionaire Sunil Mittal, launched a $1+ billion block deal to sell part of its stake in the telecom major.

Top Movers
Losers: Bharti Airtel, Eternal, Infosys, Bharat Electronics, and HDFC Bank — all down up to 2.5%.

Gainers: Bajaj Finance, Titan, Trent, Bajaj Finserv, and NTPC — up to 0.92%.

Sector Performance
Weakness was seen in Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.85%), Pharma (-0.57%), IT (-0.53%), FMCG (-0.26%), and Financial Services (-0.25%).
Gains came from Nifty Media (+0.79%), Oil & Gas (+0.64%), and PSU Bank (+0.04%).

Expert View
“The market remains technically and fundamentally weak, with no signs yet of a strong earnings uptick for FY26. High valuations and persistent FII selling — ₹15,950 crore so far in August — are weighing on sentiment. The only cushion is strong DII buying, which is preventing a deeper fall,”
— V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services

Yesterday’s 250-point recovery in the Nifty was driven by short covering and robust DII inflows of ₹10,864 crore. However, with ongoing tariff tensions between India and the US, FIIs are expected to keep selling.

“With 88% of Nifty 500 stocks bouncing at least 1% from intraday lows, a broad-based recovery is possible. We see an initial upside to 24,670–24,717, with potential to extend to 24,850–25,000 if momentum holds. Support lies near 24,548,”
— Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services