Indian stock benchmarks Sensex and Nifty fell for the third straight session, the rupee weakened further and global crude oil prices continued to weigh on sentiment on Thursday.
Indian stocks followed global markets lower as investors were spooked by more aggressive noises from US policymakers about the need for tighter monetary policy.
Falling for the third session in a row, the BSE gauge Sensex tumbled over 575 points to close at just above 59,000-level as continued sell-offs in HDFC duo led the decline on the index amid caution set in due to hawkish US Fed comments.
Starting off on a tepid note, the Sensex slumped below the 59,000 mark in intra-day trade, but managed to end at 59,035 – suffering a 575.46 points or 0.97 percent loss.
Similarly, the NSE barometer Nifty fell 168.10 points or 0.94 percent to settle the day at 17,639.55.
This was the third straight session of losses for both the indices.
HDFC and HDFC Bank shares continued to witness selloff for the third straight session. HDFC ended 2.91 percent lower and HDFC Bank logged 2.19 percent drop on Thursday. Both these scrips had jumped about 10 percent on Monday after the merger announcement of both these entities.
On the Sensex chart, Titan was the biggest loser in percentage terms, falling 3.24 percent, Other laggards were, Wipro, TCS and Reliance.
Of the Sensex constituents, 18 shares closed with losses.
Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL, Dr Reddy’s and Mahindra and Mahindra were among major gainers.
The broader indices also fell, but lesser than the benchmark. The BSE Largecap fell 0.91 percent, Smallcap index 0.75 percent and Midcap index 0.42 per cent.
Sectorally, the BSE Oil & Gas and Energy were major losers, dropping 2.59 percent and 2.28 percent, respectively.
Investors now await the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) three-day monetary policy meet-ing due Friday morning amid rising concerns of surging inflation.
Indian rupee drops
At the interbank foreign exchange, the Indian rupee fell 19 paise against the US dollar to 76.03 on Thursday.
Crude oil
Meanwhile, oil prices rose slightly on Thursday. Brent crude was up $ 1.85, or 1.82 percent, to $102.89 a barrel.
Rising crude oil prices remained a big worry for India, the world’s third-largest importer and consumer of oil, as a rise in crude prices tends to push the country’s trade and current account deficit higher while also hurting the rupee.
Global market selloff
Asian shares retreated on Thursday, in line with a global selloff, as markets were spooked by hawkish Fed comments.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.17 percent to its lowest level in a week, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 1.9 percent.
European and U.S. share futures also fell. EUROSTOXX 50 futures eased 0.2 percent, S&P 500 fu-tures fell 0.37 percent and Nasdaq futures fell 0.35 percent.
Minutes of the Fed’s March 15-16 meeting released on Wednesday, showed deepening concern among policymakers that inflation had broadened through the economy.
US Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said on Tuesday she expects rapid reductions to the cen-tral bank’s balance sheet.
Overnight all three major U.S. benchmarks fell, with the Nasdaq Composite worst hit, losing 2.22%.
Also on investors’ minds was growing economic strains in China, which is grappling with new out-breaks of COVID-19. Shanghai, currently under a city-wide lockdown, reported nearly 20,000 new cases on April 6 – the vast majority asymptomatic – the local government said on Thursday.
Nomura estimated on Tuesday that a total of 23 Chinese cities have implemented either full or partial lockdowns, which collectively are home to an estimated 193 million people and contribute 22 percent of the country’s GDP.
