Sensex Sinks 1000 Points As Fire Breaks Out At Largest Nuclear Power Plant In Ukraine

Benchmark indices fell for the third straight day in a row, as battle between Russia and Ukraine continued to rage. The Sensex was down 1066 points in trade, while the Nifty dropped 320 points in trade on reports that a fire had broken out at the largest Nuclear Power plant in Europe.

The major indices in the Asia-Pacific region Friday saw deep cuts after reports that smoke was visible from a nuclear power plant in Ukraine - the largest in Europe - after Russian troops attacked.

Investors continued to worry about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine and the risk coming from elevated crude prices.

Among the stocks that lost ground in trade today were Asian Paints, Maruti and also HDFC Bank, which is heavily owned by Foreign Portfolio Investors. Stocks like HDFC Bank and HDFC plunged to new 52-week lows in trade today.

It's likely that heavy FPI owned stocks would continue to languish in the short to medium term.

"Weakness in market is expected to continue in near term given escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict and surging crude and commodity prices. Upcoming state election results and US Fed meeting over next two weeks would further add to the volatility. If the crude and commodity prices continue to surge or remain high for longer, it may impact margins and earnings of various sectors. Thus sectors benefitting from high commodity prices are likely to stay in flavor. While sectors heavily impacted from high prices are expected to remain under pressure. Thus, till the prices don't cool off, one can look at sectors such as oil & gas and metals while IT can be looked at from defensive perspective as it benefits from depreciating rupee," says Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.