Sensex tanks over 700 points, Nifty opens below 16,420 

The Indian equity market opened in red on Friday as global cues turn soar on fears of bigger rate hikes and high inflation.

The Sensex tanked 743 points to open at 54,938.38 while the Nifty 50 opens below 16,420, down 250 points.

Barring M&M and ITC, all stocks were in deep red with Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever, and HCL Tech as major losers, down up to 3.4 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell up to 2.2 per cent.

Sectorally, Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, and IT were down up to 1.77 per cent.

The SGX Nifty signalled negative start for the Indian markets; at 7:45 am, the SGX Nifty futures were quoting 16,420 levels, hinting at a gap-down start of over 250 points for the Nifty benchmark.

In the global markets. US stocks witnessed a sharp rout in overnight trade over fresh rate hike concerns to tame inflation. Major Asian hubs opened with big cuts during early hours. 

Major Asian markets tanked this morning after US stocks plunged on renewed anxiety over rising interest rates. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 1.25 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.34%, Australia's ASX 200 tanked 2.53%, South Korea's Kospi plunged 1.33%, New Zealand's DJ tumbled 2.33%, China's Shanghai retreated 0.02%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.03%

Wall Street tumbled after having jumped the previous day on the Federal Reserve holding back on aggressively raising rates. Dow Jones plunged over 3 per cent, the S&P 500 tanked 3.5 per cent and the Nasdaq crashed 5 per cent to its lowest closing level since November 2020.

Meanwhile, Life Insurance Coproration (LIC) IPO was fully subscribed on day 2 of the offer period. The issue so far has generated bids worth Rs 20,744 crore, including the Rs 5,628 crore raised from anchor investors. Small investors have poured in over Rs 12,000 crore in the IPO.