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The key benchmark indices ended the final trading session of February with sharp losses, dragged down by heavyweights, even as the sell-off in tech stocks paused. The weak handover from Wall Street, coupled with rising crude oil prices amid a lack of clarity over US-Iran talks, has also weighed on sentiment.

Consequently, the Nifty 50 dropped 1.3% to the 25,166 level, and the Sensex tanked 1.14% to 81,307. The broader markets, too, faced heavy losses, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 index and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index falling over 1.3%.

The Nifty 50 heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, and SBI fell between 0.64% and 1.5%.

In terms of sector-wise, the Nifty Realty was the top laggard, falling 2.27%, while the Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG, and Nifty Metal all sank over 1.5%.

On the upside, the Nifty Media closed up 0.65%, followed by the Nifty Chemicals, which rose 0.11%. The Nifty IT largely remained unchanged.

While domestic factors remain in favour of bulls, AI disruption fears, uncertainty over US trade policy, and heightened concerns in the Middle East have all led the Nifty 50 to register a 0.60% drop in February, extending its losing run to a third straight month.

On the geopolitical front, the latest round of US-Iran talks did not lead to a breakthrough, with both sides agreeing to extend negotiations, supporting higher crude oil prices.

Home First Finance saw heavy selling today, with the stock falling 8% to ₹1,083 apiece after promoters cut down their stake in the company, while Vishal Mega Mart stock fell 7.65% after a large block deal took place on Friday, with reportedly 14.2% equity worth ₹7,915 crore changing hands through the window.

L&T Finance was another top laggard among Nifty 500 constituents, falling 5.32% to ₹280 apiece.

Capital market-related stocks such as Angel One, Computer Age Management Services, Nuvama Wealth Management, UTI Asset Management, BSE, and JM Financial closed with losses of over 3%.

While the selling in large-cap IT stocks paused, select mid- and small-cap tech stocks continued to see pressure, with names such as eClerx Services, Firstsource Solutions, and KPIT Technologies falling 3.9%, 3%, and 2.9%, respectively.

Among new-age tech stocks, PB Fintech shed 3.2%, while in the metals pack, Vedanta lost 2.8% of its value. Extending its losing streak to the third straight day, LIC shares dropped another 2.5% to ₹849 apiece, yet the stock managed to close February with a 3% gain, snapping its four-month losing run.

(more to come)Ksheera Sagar has been working as a Market Research Analyst at LiveMint for the past four years, covering stocks, commodities and broader financial ma...

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