Sensex Falls Over 500 pts, Nifty Below 16,900; ITC Declines 1%

Sensex Today: After a flat close, the previous day, the Sensex and Nifty opened in the red on Wednesday amid weak global cues. Key indices Nifty50 declined over 100 points to trade below 16,900 levels and the S&P BSE Sensex dropped over 500 points to trade at 56,579 levels.

The muted risk appetite among investors also kept broader markets in negative territory as Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap 100 indices slipped in the range of 0.6 to 0.7 per cent.

Likewise, all sectors started trade on a bearish tone. Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal, and Nifty Bank indices faced the biggest fall as they declined over 1 per cent each.

While Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Infosys, attempted to trim losses for the benchmark indices; HDFC Twins, Reliance Industries, ITC, IndusInd Bank weighed the indices down.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Globally equity markets are in bear territory. Nasdaq is down 33.2 per cent from the peak and S&P 500 is down 24.3 per cent from the peak. The Euro Stoxx 50 is down 24.3% from its peak. These are clear bearish signals from markets in the developed world. India is a distinct outlier with only 8.5 per cent decline from the peak in Nifty. India can remain an outperformer supported by its strong fundamentals but India cannot remain immune to major global trends.”

“The texture of the market has changed from ‘buy on dips’ to ‘sell on rally’ and therefore, investors have to be cautious in the market now. The Bank Nifty has sharply corrected by 8 per cent from its recent record high and is weak now. IT is likely to remain resilient supported by currency tailwinds. Autos and capital goods can be slowly accumulated on declines. Since valuations in India continue to be high relative to peers, investors may brace for more corrections in this bearish scenario. A sharp turnaround in global market sentiments will happen only when data indicate a decline in US inflation.”

Rupee

The Indian rupee opened at a record low at 81.83 per dollar on Wednesday against the previous close of 81.57.

Global Cues

Asian share markets slid on Wednesday as surging borrowing costs fed fears of a global recession, spooking investors into the arms of the safe-haven dollar and driving the Chinese yuan to record lows.

Tokyo stocks opened lower on Wednesday after Wall Street ended mixed, with the S&P 500 notching a new low for the year. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.98 percent, or 261.70 points, at 26,310.17 in morning trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.78 percent, or 14.65 points, at 1,858.36.

The S&P 500 fell to its lowest level in almost two years on Tuesday on worries about super aggressive Federal Reserve policy tightening, trading under its June trough and leaving investors appraising how much further stocks would have to fall before stabilizing.

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