Falling for the third consecutive day, Indian equity benchmarks tumbled over a per cent on Friday, as a sharp rally in crude prices and massive selling in IT counters weighed heavily on investors' sentiment. Unabated foreign fund outflows, a negative trend in global markets amid prolonged conflict and continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz added to the gloom. 

Some of the important factors in trade: 

Conflict in West Asia, supply chain issues to pose challenges to domestic economy: The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) April bulletin has said that ongoing conflict in West Asia and supply chain disruptions could pose challenges to the domestic economy in the form of higher energy costs, input cost pressures, disruption in trade flows and spillovers in financial markets. 

India’s engineering exports to UAE, Saudi Arabia fall in March: The EEPC data has showed that India's engineering exports plunged 66.8 per cent to the UAE and 45 per cent to Saudi Arabia in March due to the West Asia crisis, which has impacted cargo ships movement in international waters. 

India, Qatar discuss boosting trade amid West Asia crisis: Amid disruptions caused by the West Asia crisis, India and Qatar have held discussions on ways to boost bilateral trade and strengthen supply chain resilience. 

Telecom stocks remain in watch: Sector regulator Trai said telecom companies added 92.7 lakh customers to over 133 crore subscribers in March, with Bharti Airtel leading the chart. 

Global font: European markets were trading mostly in red amid concerns over a lack of efforts by the U.S. and Iran to de-escalate the Middle East conflict. Asian markets settled mixed on Friday as U.S.-Iran peace talks showed little progress and the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed, sending oil prices soaring toward $107 a barrel. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex fell 999.79 points or 1.29% to 76,664.21 and the CNX Nifty was down by 275.10 points or 1.14% to 23,897.95.    

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 77,710.82 and 76,403.87, respectively. There were 5 stocks advancing against 25 stocks declining on the index.  

The top losing sectoral indices on the BSE were IT down by 5.13%, TECK down by 4.11%, Healthcare down by 1.35%, Telecom down by 1.33% and Realty down by 1.30%, while there was no gaining sectoral indices on the BSE. 

The top gainers on the Sensex were Trent up by 0.73%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.42%, SBI up by 0.36%, HDFC Bank up by 0.13% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 0.03%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 7.09%, HCL Technologies down by 5.83%, TCS down by 4.77%, Tech Mahindra down by 4.04% and Sun Pharma down by 3.65% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, an article on 'State of the Economy' published in the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) April bulletin has said that ongoing conflict in West Asia and supply chain disruptions could pose challenges to the domestic economy in the form of higher energy costs, input cost pressures, disruption in trade flows and spillovers in financial markets.

It stated that the conflict in West Asia has intensified stress on worldwide supply chains in March, but some improvement was observed in early April. Domestic economic activity remained strong across many sectors, with a slowdown in a few others. The conflict’s duration and intensity, coupled with its impact on energy and other infrastructure, increase uncertainty around inflation and growth prospects.

It stated ‘If the conflict persists and supply chains are not restored early, it may create challenges to the domestic economy in the form of higher energy costs, input cost pressures, disruption in trade flows and financial market spillovers.’ It pointed out though inflation is within the target range, the risk of an increase has grown, driven by supply-side disruptions, including weather-related uncertainties. The RBI said the views expressed in the Bulletin article are of the authors and do not represent the views of the central bank.

CNX Nifty touched high and low of 24,206.00 and 23,813.65, respectively. There were 12 stocks advancing against 38 stocks declining on the index.       

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 0.97%, Trent up by 0.91%, Hindalco up by 0.78%, Nestle up by 0.67% and Shriram Finance up by 0.66%. On the flip side, Infosys down by 6.92%, TCS down by 4.79%, Tech Mahindra down by 4.20%, HCL Technologies down by 4.08% and Sun Pharma down by 3.67% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 42.41 points or 0.41% to 10,414.60 and France’s CAC fell 24.82 points or 0.3% to 8,202.50, while Germany’s DAX gained 44.25 points or 0.18% to 24,199.70.

Asian markets settled mixed on Friday, with Brent crude holding above $106 per barrel amid persistent US-Iran tensions over the control of the Strait of Hormuz, fuelling worries about inflation, interest rates and economic growth. Japanese shares gained as investors assessed slightly firmer inflation data ahead of next week’s Bank of Japan (BoJ) policy decision. Japan’s core inflation accelerated for the first time in five months, driven by higher energy costs, though it remained below the BoJ’s 2% target. Hong Kong shares rose driven by intense bargain hunting in technology and artificial intelligence-linked semiconductor stocks following DeepSeek's new AI model release. While Indonesian shares fell following the negative cues from Wall Street overnight.