New Delhi: Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Friday started traded lower on apprehension of aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve chief, suggested that the US central bank would take steps to curb inflation. He said that hike of 50 basis point rate could be seen in May.
At 10 am, the 30-share BSE platform plunged 560 points to 57,352, while the broader NSE was trading at 17,214, down 178 points.
Among specific stocks, HCL Tech was the top gainer in the morning trade, up 2.19 per cent to Rs 1,123. The other prominent gainers are Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, and Tech M.
On the flipside, Dr Reddy's Labs, SBI, M&M, HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Nestle India, were the top losers during early trade.
Meanwhile, in the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices recouped losses and were up 0.03 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Among the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) 15 sector gauges, except Nifty IT, all were trading in the negative zone. Nifty IT is in the green, trading 0.2 per cent up.
Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Auto were underperforming the benchmark by dropping about 1.69 per cent and 1.42 per cent, respectively.
In the previous session on Thursday, Sensex touched 874 points (1.53 per cent) higher to finish at 57,911. The NSE Nifty rallied 256 points (1.49 per cent) to 17,392.60.
In the Asian markets, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Seoul were all trading lower during their mid-session deals.
On Thursday, stocks in the US had ended lower.
Meanwhile, Brent crude, international oil benchmark, declined 1 per cent to $107.25 per barrel.
According to data from stock exchanges, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their spree on selling, offloading shares worth Rs 713.69 crore on Thursday.