Stock Market Today: The Sensex and Nifty continued to trade lower on Wednesday morning. Around 10:24 AM, the BSE Sensex plunged more than 250 points and stood at 80,428.39, while the NSE Nifty50 declined around 72 points and traded at 24,264.10.
On the 30-share Sensex, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Reliance, Hindustan Unilever, and Tech M emerged among the gainers. Meanwhile, Tata Motors, PowerGrid, Adani Ports, NTPC, and L&T stood among the laggards.
The broader markets stood completely in red. The Nifty Next 50 index dominated and declined 0.63 per cent. This decline was attributed to foreign fund outflows and investors turning cautious ahead of the interest rate decision of the US Fed.
Among the sectors, the Nifty Pharma and Healthcare Index indices clocked gains and traded higher by 1.38 per cent and 1 per cent respectively. On the other hand, the Nifty Media index declined a little over 1 per cent in the morning trading hours.
In the last trading session on Tuesday, the key benchmark indices settled trading in red. The Sensex closed trading at 80,684.45, plunging more than 1000 points, while the Nifty50 settled for the day at 24,350, taking a hit of more than 300 points.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Yesterday’s massive FII sell figure of Rs 6,410 crore in the cash market indicates that more selling is in store on market bounces. The focus of global markets today will be the Fed decision expected tonight. A 25 bps rate cut is priced-in by the market. So, the attention will be on the Fed commentary.”
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 6,409.86 crore on Tuesday, official exchange data revealed.
Asian markets saw Seoul, Hong Kong, and Shanghai trading higher, while Tokyo stood lower. The global oil benchmark Brent crude inched up 0.04 per cent to touch $73.22 per barrel.
The Indian currency depreciated 1 paisa to touch 84.92 against the US dollar in early trade on Wednesday and traded near its all-time low level.