Sensex plunges 542 points, Nifty50 sinks below key support at 17,600 as market makes a U-turn after three-day rally

Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 suffered steep losses on Thursday, halting a rally that lasted three back-to-back sessions, amid selling across sectors. The 50-scrip index closed below key support at the 17,600 mark. Financial, IT, oil & gas and auto shares were at the forefront of the sell-off on the weekly expiry day. Globally, hawkish comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell and macroeconomic data pointing to resilience of the world's largest economy stoked fears about higher-for-longer interest rates. 

Both headline indices finished the day 0.9 per cent lower, with the Sensex shedding 541.8 points to settle at 59,806.3 for the day. The Nifty50 lost 164.8 points to close at 17,589.6. 

The Nifty Bank — whose 12 member scrips include SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank — gave up 320.4 points or 0.8 per cent for the day to end at 41,256.8. 

Earlier in the day, Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi had said that market participants should not worry as long as the Nifty50 and the Nifty Bank close above 17,600 and 41,000 levels.  

Adani Enterprises was the top laggard in the Nifty50 basket, 39 of whose constituents fell for the day. NSE placed Adani Enterprises, along with two other Adani group stocks, Adani Power and Adani Wilmar, under its short-term additional surveillance measure framework.

Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI Life, Reliance and Adani Ports were also among the worst hit stocks in the 39 losers in the 50-scrip universe.

Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel and Cipla were the top gainers — bucking the trend in a sea of red on Dalal Street.

Top Nifty50 losers

Top Nifty50 gainers

Among heavyweights, Reliance, ICICI Bank, TCS, ITC and Infosys were the biggest drags on both headline indices.

Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 finished around half a per cent lower each. Overall market breadth remained skewed in favour of the bears throughout the session, with an advance-decline ratio of 4:5 at the close on BSE as 1,565 stocks rose and 1,923 fell for the day. 

"The market could hardly hold on to its previous gains as the Fed Chair’s reaffirmation of his hawkish statement brought in more worries. In this backdrop, the upcoming US job data will have a substantial impact on the Fed’s policy decision in its next FOMC meeting. A stronger-than-expected jobs report will prompt the Fed to raise interest rates by 50 bps," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Global markets

European markets began the day in the red amid weakness in realty and mining shares, with the pan-continent Stoxx 600 index down 0.4 per cent at the last count. 

Dow Jones futures fell as much as 80 points or 0.2 per cent to 32,733, suggesting a weak start ahead on Wall Street.

Earlier in the day, MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6 per cent amid largely negative moves across the region. 

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