Opening Bell: Sensex, Nifty in red amid weak global cues after US Fed announces another rate hike

Opening Bell: The India equity markets started Thursday's session on a lower note, as global sentiments turned weaker after the US Federal Reserve announced another rate hike by 25 basis points this year.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, but indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases in borrowing costs after the recent collapse of two US banks.

The BSE Sensex was down 256.34 points or 0.44 per cent to 57,958.25 and NSE Nifty50 declined by 77.35 points or 0.45 per cent to 17,074.55 minutes after the market open on Thursday.

The broader markets too followed benchmarks suit to trade in the red minutes after the start of today’s session as Nifty Mid and Smallcap each down around 0.3 per cent.

The 12-share banking index, Nifty Bank was at 39,763.35 level, down 235.70 points or 0.59 per cent in the early session.  

As many as 17 stocks were advancing and 33 were declining on Nifty50 in the early morning trade. Asian Paints, HCL Tech, Wipro, Infosys, and Reliance were among the top laggards.

On the contrary, Larsen and Toubro gained the most, followed by Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp and Divis Lab were among the top gainers.

Except for Nifty Pharma, all other sectoral indices were in the red, of which Nifty IT dipped most by over 1 per cent, followed by banking and financial services down over 0.5 per cent in the early morning session on Thursday.

“Nifty should hold up the levels 17000 intraday however if broken more selling is likely to drag the market downside whereas resistance is placed at 17300-17350 zone,” Om Mehra Equity Research Analyst Choice Broking.

The market analyst said due to weekly expiry, the market may experience huge swings and chaotic volatility.

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