Nifty at 23,900, Sensex slips over 1,500 pts from day’s high: Why markets are down today?

After a positive opening, Indian equities tumbled sharply amid across-the-board sell-off. At the time of writing this copy, Nifty very swiftly gave up 23,900 levels and traded at 23,887.65, down 1.48 per cent or 359.05 points, while the 30-share Sensex lost 1.34 per cent or 1,067.54 per cent at 78,733.89. Meanwhile, the high-beta Bank Nifty index was down as much as 1.74 per cent dragged by counters including Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank among others.

Primarily, the downturn is attributed to the combination of geopolitical tension. profit booking and global market cues. 

Furthermore, within the broader markets, smallcaps underperformed with a cut of over 3.6 per cent.

Here are the likely drags weighing on D-Street today:

India- Pakistan tensions weigh:

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan post Pahalgam attack, the United Nations has appeal to India, Pakistan to exercise ‘maximum restraint’. India on Thursday (April 24, 2025) in responsen to the attack put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance with immediate effect, asserting that Pakistan has breached conditions of the treaty. 

No resolution in sight for India-China trade war

As the latest move, China has asked the US to revoke its sweeping tariffs on China as a prime indication that the US President Donald Trump is series in resolving trade ties between the two nations.

A Chinese official has denied trade talks with the US, despite otherwise suggestions from the US administration.

Banking sector drags

Nifty Bank after hitting a new high amid the positive market mood on a sombre note today fell sharply today with private banks largely contributing to the losses.

Technical factors:

Kunal Kamble, Sr. Technical Research Analyst at Bonanza Group said this correction is seen to as a natural response to the recent gains. If we see the sectors, all 13 major sectors on Nifty 50 experienced losses, with small cap and mid-cap indices falling by around 2 to 6, 2.6 to 2 per cent, respectively.

Notably, if we see Axis Bank shares dropped by almost 3.7 per cent due to concern over asset quality. If we see today’s levels, immediate support is seen at 24,000 levels. This level is crucial as it is having a 50% fib retracement and a sustained move below this could indicate a further weakness. If we talk about major support levels, it is at 23,800. Talking about the resistance, 24 350 will act as immediate resistance, followed by 24 500. This resistance R is need to be breached for a bullish reversal, he added.