Stock Market Snaps Two-Day Winning Run; Sensex Plunges 715 Points, Nifty Settles Below 17,200

Stock market investors’ sentiment got dampened after the US Federal Reserve hinted at an aggressive rate hike by 50 basis point to curb high inflation

New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Friday snapped their two-day winning streak and ended day’s trade lower amid selling pressure across all sectors.  

Investors’ sentiment got dampened after the US Federal Reserve hinted at an aggressive rate hike by 50 basis point to curb high inflation.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dived 715 points to close at 57,197, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 221 points down to 17,171.

M&M, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Asian Paints, ITC, and HCL Tech were gainers on the BSE. On the flipside, the rest 24 indices were in the red. SBI was the prime loser, with the stock dipped over 3 per cent.

In the broader markets, midcap and smallcap also shares ended on a negative zone. Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.94 per cent, while the smallcap shed 0.32 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) all 15 sector gauges closed in the red. The sub-indexes such as Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, and Nifty Metal underperformed by declining 2.10 per cent, 1.82 per cent, and 1.97 per cent, respectively.

On Thursday during the previous session, Sensex touched 874 points (1.53 per cent) higher to finish at 57,911. The Nifty gained 256 points (1.49 per cent) to 17,392.60.

In the Asian markets, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul settled lower, while Shanghai ended higher marginally.

Markets in Europe were trading lower in the afternoon session. Stocks in the US had ended lower on Thursday.

"This excessively volatile market without any clear direction is being influenced on a daily basis by two factors - one, external and two, internal. The external factor is the erratic movement in the mother market US where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq go up by around 2 per cent one day and go down by around 2 per cent the next day,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services told the PTI.

International oil benchmark Brent crude, meanwhile, declined 1.60 per cent to $106.6 per barrel.

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree, offloading shares worth Rs 713.69 crore on Thursday.