Indian benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Friday, in line with weak global cues following the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike and its hawkish stance. Sensex tanked 461 points to end at 61,337 and Nifty plummeted 145 points to close at 18,269.
Top losers
Dr Reddy’s (3.62%), M&M (2.44%), Asian Paints (2.30%) , TCS (2.01%) , SBI (1.98%), Titan (1.59%) and PowerGrid (1.48%) were the top Sensex losers.
Top gainers
HDFC Bank (0.49%), HUL (0.30%), Nestle India (0.19%) and Tata Steel (0.05%) were the only gainers on Sensex.
Market breadth was negative with 1,414 shares closing higher against 2120 stocks falling on BSE. 128 shares were unchanged.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “Global markets extended their rout as the ECB and BoE followed the Fed in raising policy rates by half a percent while maintaining a hawkish tone on inflation. The aggressiveness of central banks in combating inflation has raised concerns about the global economy’s health. Despite attempts to recoup losses, a lack of global support pushed the indices back into negative territory.”
IT, pharma, banking, capital goods and auto shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 362 points, 310 pts, 336 points, 442 points and 335 points, respectively. All 19 BSE sectoral indices ended in the red.
The Nifty IT index too fell 385 points to 28,702.
Market cap of BSE-listed firms settled at Rs 285.46 lakh crore. BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 376 points and 285 points, respectively.
Ajit Mishra, VP – Technical Research, Religare Broking said, “Weak global cues are weighing on the sentiment and indications are in the favour of further decline. Nifty has breached crucial support at 18,300 and now the next support comes at the 18,000 zone. In absence of any major event, global cues will continue to dictate the trend. Meanwhile, traders should align their positions as per the market trend and avoid making aggressive bets.”
Previous session
Indian benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed over 1 per cent lower each on Thursday, in line with weak global markets following the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike and its hawkish stance. Sensex tanked 878.88 points to end at 61,799.03. During the day, it crashed 962.3 points or 1.53 per cent to 61,715.61. Nifty plummeted 245.40 points or 1.32 per cent to close at 18,414.90.
