Stock Market Update: Sensex Opens 289 Points Lower, Nifty At 17,014 Levels

The stocks were dragged by metal and IT companies as global investors also kept on edge in the wake of higher-than-expected US inflation amid persistent concerns over growth.

The equity market on Monday opened on a bearish note as Sensex declined 288.8 points to 57,138.12 in early trade while Nifty dipped 79.4 points to touch 17,014.95 levels. Both the key benchmark indices fell on Monday as the investors absorbed rate hikes along with sluggish foreign inflows and muted global cues.

Most sectors started trading on a volatile note. Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Titan and Maruti Suzuki remained laggards on BSE Sensex . Banking stocks including HDFC Bank and ICICI bank also trading lower on Monday. Nifty Energy, Nifty Media, and Nifty Pharma indices traded with marginal gains, whereas, Nifty Bank, Nifty Metal, and Nifty Auto indices remained under pressure.

Individual stocks such as ONGC, and Oil India soared up to 6 per cent after the government hiked prices of natural gas by 40 per cent.  HFCL shared also inched up over 4 per cent after the company launched 5G Lab-as-a-Service to accelerate the rollout of 5G services.

The stocks were dragged by metal and IT companies as global investors also kept on edge in the wake of higher-than-expected US inflation amid persistent concerns over growth.

Fresh personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data, tracked by the US Federal Reserve as it considers more interest rate hikes, showed a rise of 0.3 per cent in August, according to the news agency Reuters.

The metals index fell 1.2 per cent, while the IT index dropped 0.6 per cent. Rupee also depreciated on Monday as it opened 24 paise lower at 81.58 per dollar amid rising crude prices, risk aversion in equity markets, a strong dollar and weak Asian peers, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, oil soared on Monday as OPEC+ aims to cut output this week, while Asia shares were mixed with holidays in the Asia-Pacific region likely to result in thin trading.

US crude rose 3.01 per cent to $81.88 a barrel after oil production is expected to be cut by between 500,000 and one million barrels a day. Brent crude rose 2.95 per cent to $87.65 per barrel.