Stock Market: Sensex Plunges 505 Points, Nifty Settles Below 19,350 On Weak Global Cues. PSU Banks Rally

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, only Tata Motors, Titan, M&M, SBI, and TCS emerged gainers

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Friday dived into the negative territory due to profit booking amid rate hike fears by the US Federal Reserve, denting investor sentiment. The S&P BSE Sensex plunged 505 points to settle at 65,280. The index hit an intra-day low of 65,176. On the other hand, the Nifty50, sank below the 19,350-mark to close at 19,332, down 165 points. The index's intra-day low was 19,304.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, only Tata Motors, Titan, M&M, SBI, and TCS emerged gainers. On the downside, PowerGrid, IndusInd Bank, HUL, NTPC, HCL, Bajaj Finance, Tech M, were the prime losers in the large-cap space, dropping between 1 per cent and 3 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index shed 0.8 per cent and the Smallcap index declined 0.28 per cent.

Sectorwise, barring Auto and PSU Bank, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with FMCG, Power, Realty down 1 per cent each.

In the previous session on Thursday, the BSE Sensex settled 340 points to 65,786, while the NSE Nifty50 gained 99 points to 19,497.

In global markets, Hong Kong, China, Japan, and Australia sank up to 1.7 per cent following overnight losses in US equities as reports suggested the US job market remains much more resilient than expected. Investors feared that as a sturdy labour market keeps the economy out of a long-feared recession, it could also push the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to defeat high inflation.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.25 per cent to $76.70 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth Rs 2,641.05 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated further by 13 paise to close at 82.73 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday, weighed down by losses in domestic markets and a rise in crude oil prices. At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 82.68 against the dollar and settled at 82.73 (provisional), down 13 paise from its previous close.

During the day, the rupee touched a high of 82.63 and a low of 82.75 against the greenback. On Thursday, the rupee had settled at 82.60 against the dollar. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, witnessed a marginal decline of 0.10 per cent to 103.05.