Markets trade lower amid weak global cues; Nifty below 17,900; HDFC twins top losers

6 Apr 2022 , 09:41 AM

Indian markets nosedived on Wednesday’s session tracking weak global peers as investors contemplated the latest announcement from the US Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard indicating hawkish stance in Fed policy. Fed Governor has cleared that the Fed will start reducing the balance sheet size soon. Also, the markets retreats from 11-week peaks scaled in the last week’s session, amid volatility across financial stocks as HDFC Bank and HDFC took a breather.

In the opening bell, Sensex has dipped by more than 400 points with an intraday low of 59,694.64. Meanwhile, Nifty 50 dropped nearly 100 points and has touched the day’s low of 17,819.15.

At the domestic front, a broad-based selloff was witnessed with banking, consumer durables and auto stocks underperforming the most. Also, investors focus has shifted to March 2021 quarterly result as IT-giant TCS is set to announce its financial performance later today.

At around 09.45 AM, Sensex was trading at 59,848.04 down by 328.46 points or 0.55%. Nifty 50 was performing at 17,875.20 lower by 82.20 points or 0.46%.

On Nifty, Coal India was the top gainer soaring by 2.5% followed by UPL surging 2% and Tata Steel and JSW Steel inched higher.

On the contrary, Nifty underperformers list included HDFC Bank on the top spot plunging over 1.5% followed by HDFC, Kotak Bank, HDFc Life diving over 1% and Bajaj Finance lower by over 1%.

In terms of sectoral indices, on NSE, the Banking index dipped more than 350 points, while the Financials index fell by 150 points. The Auto, FMCG and IT index were also under pressure while metal, pharma stocks logged some buying sentiments from investors.

Notably, investors focus has also shifted to RBI’s first monetary policy for fiscal year FY23, which is set to be announced on April 08. The six-member monetary policy committee including RBI governor Shaktikanta Das will begin their 3-day policy meeting starting today.

On the global front, US markets see profit booking as Dow Jones falls over 280 points while Nasdaq falls over 320 points after seeing a superb run last week. Oil prices see profit booking at higher levels to close lower, while Bond yields close near new highs @ 2.60%.

Furthermore, Asian indices opened in the red led by weak US cues as profit booking was witnessed in most Asian indices.