Stock Market: Sensex Snaps Four-Session Winning Run, Sinks 224 Points; Nifty Holds 18,000

Stock update: Infosys fell the most by 4.53 per cent. TCS, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, L&T, Wipro, and Reliance were among the major losers on the Sensex platform

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Wednesday, snapped its four-session winning run, mainly because of sell-off in IT and pharma counters amid rising concerns over possible aggressive interest rate hikes to tame high inflation.

The Sensex rebounded more than 1,200 points from the early lows before settling at 60,346, with a loss of 224 points, while the broader NSE Nifty closed lower 66 points at 18,003 points.

Gains in banking shares helped the indices recover from early lows but selling in IT, energy and pharma shares restricted the gains.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Infosys fell the most by 4.53 per cent. TCS, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, L&T, Wipro, and Reliance were among the major losers. On the flip side, IndusInd, PowerGrid, NTPC, SBI, Kotak Bank and HDFC twins advanced.

Volatility index, India VIX, on Wednesday surged 5 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index dipped 0.1 per cent, while the BSE SmallCap index declined 0.01 per cent.

Sectorally, financials, largely banks, and metals bounced back, with the Nifty Metal and the Nifty Bank indices rising over 1 per cent each.

In the previous session on Tuesday, the Sensex surged 455 points (0.76 per cent) to close at a five-month high of 60,571, while the broader Nifty climbed 133 points or (0.75 per cent) to settle at 18,070. Previously, the Nifty had closed above the 18,000-mark on April 4 this year.

Global stock markets also declined following overnight losses at Wall Street as higher-than-expected inflation fanned rate hike fears. European benchmarks were marginally lower while Asian markets witnessed steeper losses.

With the higher than expected inflation reported in the US in August, there are concerns that the US Federal Reserve is likely to go for another aggressive rate hikes, pushing global markets into the red. The US inflation slowed only to 8.3 per cent in August, instead of the 8.1 per cent economists expected.

Meanwhile, Germany's DAX lost 0.2 per cent and France's CAC 40 gave up 0.3 per cent while the UK's FTSE 10 shed 0.7 per cent. Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 lost 2.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 2.3 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite index declined 0.8 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors pumped in Rs 1,956.98 crore into domestic equities on Tuesday, as per data available with the BSE.