Indian markets felt the impact of the US Federal Reserve‘s ninth consecutive rate hike as domestic equity indices closed in the negative on Thursday. Despite concerns surrounding the banking sector, the Federal Reserve reiterated its commitment to fight inflation, leading to a volatile trade day.
The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex fell 289 points or 0.50% to close at 57,925, while the broader NSE Nifty dropped 75 points or 0.44% to settle at 17,077.
Banking, financial, and IT stocks dragged the markets down, with SBI, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, HCL Tech, and Reliance being the top laggards, each declining over 1%. Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, and Power Grid also closed with losses.
On the other hand, Nestle, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, and ITC ended with gains. However, shares of Hindustan Aeronautics ended nearly 5% lower after the government announced the disinvestment of up to 3.5% stake, and shares of Vedanta also ended nearly 5% lower.
In terms of sector-wise performance, Nifty PSU Bank fell 1.74%, and Nifty IT declined 0.77%. Financials, media, realty, and oil & gas stocks also ended lower. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 dropped 0.61%, and Smallcap50 plunged 0.30%.
The market capitalisation of all listed companies on BSE declined by Rs 87,594 lakh crore to Rs 257.11 lakh crore. Meanwhile, the rupee strengthened 0.48% against the US dollar, quoted at 82.2625 per dollar, as investors anticipated that the Federal Reserve was nearing the end of its rate hiking cycle.