The Indian stock market ended Monday’s trading session, November 24, with significant losses, as a sharp reversal in tech stocks and weak support from financials wiped out early gains. A heavy sell-off in the final hour pushed the key indices below key levels.

The Nifty 50 closed at the day’s low of 25,959, slipping below the 26,000 mark and losing 0.42%, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.3% to 84,900 levels. The broader market also finished with sharper losses, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index down 0.38% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 tumbling 0.90%.

Both key indices attempted to break record highs in recent sessions, but weak support from overseas investors, despite favourable domestic fundamentals, continued to pull funds from the secondary market, which also pressured the Indian rupee, pushing it to a fresh record low last week.

Although domestic macroeconomic indicators are strengthening, the global rebound in the AI-led rally has once again attracted hot money, with analysts expecting a shift towards the Indian stock market once clarity on India-US trade emerges.

All major sectoral indices, barring Nifty IT, closed lower, led by Nifty Realty, which shed 2.05%, followed by Nifty Chemicals, Nifty Metal, Nifty Consumer Durables, and Nifty Oil & Gas, which tumbled between 0.80% and 1.3%

Nifty IT, though it came off sharply from the day’s high, managed to finish the session with a healthy gain of 0.47%.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said, ” After a range-bound positive session, the market closed with a decline in the last half hour, led by Monday expiry, as Nifty50 indices could not survive above the key threshold of 26,000. Investor sentiment remained cautious, in anticipation of key event risk like delays in finalizing the interim US-India trade agreement.”

Anant Raj, Transformers & Rectifiers lead the losers

Extending its decline for the second session, Anant Raj shares tumbled 6.5% to ₹570.75, taking its monthly drop to 11.4% and emerging as the top laggard. Similarly, Transformers & Rectifiers remained under selling pressure, falling 5.1% to ₹289.2 apiece.

Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power closed with losses of up to 5%, while Samman Capital resumed its bearish trend, slipping another 4.17% to ₹152.29.

Textile stocks also saw declines, with Vardhman Textiles and Welspun Living falling 3.7% and 3.3%, respectively. Defence major Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) dropped 4% after a Tejas fighter jet crash at the Dubai Air Show on Friday.

Other defence stocks, including Garden Reach Shipbuilders, BEML, and Bharat Electronics, fell over 3% following reports that the US and Ukraine are drafting a plan to end the war with Russia.

Among the top losers, Tejas Networks, GMDC, MMTC, Jupiter Wagons, Elecon Engineering, Deepak Nitrite, Voltas, Exide Industries, Ather Energy, and Usha Martin closed with losses between 3% and 5%.