FIRST TRADE: Sensex falls over 500 pts; Nifty below 21,550 amid broad-based selling; Wipro down over 2%

Stock market today: Domestic equity indices Sensex and Nifty slipped on Wednesday (February 14), tracking Asian peers after hotter-than-expected US inflation triggered worries of further delay in the easing of rates and weighed on sentiment. At the time of filing this report, both indices were down over 0.80 per cent.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined 650.6 points to 70,904.59, and the NSE Nifty plunged 183.1 points to 21,560.15. 

"A major catalyst driving the rally in global equity markets has been expectations of a rate cut by the Fed. The Fed had indicated possibly three rate cuts in 2024, and markets had discounted up to five rate cuts. This was based on expectations that inflation in the US would continue to trend down. This expectation has received a jolt from the US CPI inflation numbers, rising year on year to 3.1 per cent against expectations of 2.9 per cent. This means that the Fed will certainly not cut rates in March, and the number of rate cuts in 2024 will also be lower. The bond market has quickly responded, with the US 10-year yield shooting up to 4.31 per cent," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Dr. Vijayakumar added that the consequence in the Indian market would be heavy selling by FIIs. Banking stocks, which form the largest chunk of FII holdings, will be under pressure. The broader market, which is overvalued, will also be impacted by the negative sentiment. Investors may wait and watch for better clarity to emerge.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Mid Cap 100 and Small Cap 100 mirrored the headline index losses and traded over 1 per cent lower. High-beta Nifty Bank was down 1.03 per cent at 45,032.05.

BUZZING STOCKS

NALCO shares were up over 1 per cent after the company reported strong results. 

Conversely, Hindustan Copper shares lost over 1 per cent after the company posted weak Q3 numbers.

Gujarat Gas shares were down over 4 per cent after the company posted weak Q3 results. 

Manappuram Finance shares were down over 1 per cent after Ashirwad Micro Finance's IPO did not get approval from market regulator SEBI.

Paytm shares were down over 7 per cent after the enforcement directorate (ED) started an inquiry into the payment bank.

Wipro shares were down over 2 per cent a day after its announced acquisition of Aggne Global IT Services.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares tracked a negative lead from Wall Street on Wednesday, while the dollar and Treasury yields jumped as traders pared back expectations for the pace and scale of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year.

The latest shift in rate expectations came after an upside surprise in U.S. inflation on Tuesday, which showed the consumer price index (CPI) rising 3.1 per cent on an annual basis, above forecasts for a 2.9 per cent increase.

(With inputs from agencies.)

 Catch the latest stock market updates here. For all other news related to business, politics, tech and auto, visit Zeebiz.com.