New Delhi, Feb 24 Taking a further hit during the late hours, Indian equity markets settled deep in the red on Thursday on news that Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine.
Sensex settled 4.7 per cent or 2,702 points down at 54,529 points, whereas Nifty settled 4.8 per cent down, or 815 points down at 16,248 points.
All Nifty sectoral indices took a sharp cut, with Nifty PSU bank declining the most at 8.3 per cent, followed by Nifty media and media at 7.2 per cent and 7.0 per cent, respectively.
Among the Nifty 50 stocks, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, UPL, Grasim Industries, and JSW Steel tanked the most, declining 10.7 per cent, 8.5 per cent, 8.3 per cent, 7.8 per cent, and 7.3 per cent, respectively.
"It was a big surprise for the world market as it was not anticipating a war. It was expecting a diplomatic meeting between Biden and Putin. Markets around the globe plunged deep in red as the Ukraine crisis intensified with Russia's invasion into Eastern Ukraine. Crude oil prices crossed $100 per barrel and elevated inflation risk," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
According to Vijay Chandok of ICICI Securities: "While the escalated war situation between Russia-Ukraine has led to sharp cuts in key equities across the globe, we believe crude trajectory will be the key to watch out for going ahead."
The brokerage firm doesn't expect major sanctions which may drive a big spike in crude, equally harming Europe and US, or even in terms of aggressive rate hikes leading to slower economic growth.
"We, thus, believe that market stabilization is likely in the short term. Nonetheless, the medium to long term thesis on Indian equities remains intact amid economic recovery as reflected by key macroeconomic indicators, strong capex spends and robust corporate earnings."
Lastly, it sees this correction as an opportunity for the investors to add on the companies with sustainable growth visibility.
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