Domestic equity benchmarks suffered sharp losses on Wednesday amid a cautious mood across global markets as investors awaited a key rate decision by the Federal Reserve later in the day. Both headline indices fell about 0.6 per cent for the day, with the Sensex shedding 502.3 points to settle at 80,182.2 and the Nifty50 giving up 137.2 points to 24,198.9. Selling pressure in financial services shares weighed on the market, with the Nifty Bank dropping 1.3 per cent, though buying in IT stocks—led by Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro—lent some support. 

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Both indices only recovered a fraction of their intraday losses. During the session, the Nifty 50 declined as much as 186.2 points to hit 24,149.9 on the downside while the Sensex dropped as much as 634.4 points.

Most sectoral gauges finished lower, with the Nifty Bank losing 695.3 points, or 1.3 per cent, to close at 52,139.6, within 130 points of its intraday low. 

Among index heavyweights, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors and SBIweighed on the market. On the other hand, stocks like TCS, Sun Pharma and Reliance secured some buying interest, supporting the market. 

Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 also contributed to the sell-off, closing 0.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent lower respectively. 

Overall market breadth remained against the bulls for much of the session. At the end of the day, the advance-decline ratio on BSE stood at 3:5, meaning only three stocks rose against every five falling scrips.   

Global markets

European equity benchmark Stoxx 600 picked up after a muted start to the day, last seen trading 0.2 per cent higher. The UK's FTSE 100 was up 0.3 per cent at the last count. 

Meanwhile, Dow Jones futures were up 0.2 per cent, suggesting a positive start to Thursday's session after the Dow index fell 0.6 per cent on Wednesday.

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