After a sharp surge in the previous session, the Indian equity markets remained under pressure on April 30 weighed down by rising geopolitical tensions and a spike in Brent crude prices to wartime high.

On the currency front, India’s rupee weakened further to fresh record low of 95.33 per dollar, intraday, breaching its previous low of 95.12 hit in late March, pressured by strong dollar demand, elevated oil prices, and continued foreign fund outflows. However, it ended marginally lower at 94.92 per dollar versus previous close of 94.85.


Tracking weak global cues, the benchmarks opened lower, and extended selling dragged Nifty below the 23,800 mark amid broad-based selling across sectors. However, selective buying at lower levels helped to pared some of the intraday losses.

At close, the Sensex was down 582.86 points or 0.75  percent at 76,913.50, and the Nifty was down 180.1 points or 0.74 percent at 23,997.55.

In the broader market, the Nifty midcap index shed 1 percent and smallcap index fell 0.5 percent.

The market will remain shut on May 1 on account of Maharashtra Day.

Top Nifty losers included Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Hindalco Industries, Eternal, HUL, Axis Bank, while gainers were Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance.

Except IT, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with Metal index declined 2%, while PSU Bank, Private Bank, Consumer Durables, Realty down 1% each.

More than 100 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including Himadri Speciality, HFCL, Sai Life Sciences, Coal India, Hitachi Energy, Navin Fluorine, ONGC, Apar Industries, MCX India, Lloyds Metals, Chennai Petro, among others. 

In stock-specific action, Bajaj Finance shares rose 1 percent after the company reported a strong operational performance, while RPG Life Sciences rose 13 percent despite a sharp decline in profitability.

On the downside, Force Motors shares slipped 5 percent as its Q4 consolidated profit dropped 35.9 percent, and HEG Limited declined more than 9 percent after its consolidated loss widened. Meanwhile, Motilal Oswal Financial Services gained 2 percent even as it reported a significant increase in losses.

Among gainers, Indian Hume Pipe Company advanced 2 percent after securing a major contract worth ?458.69 crore from the Public Health & Municipal Engineering Department in Hyderabad, Telangana, while Newgen Software Technologies jumped 5 percent on the back of robust Q4 earnings.