The Indian equity benchmarks fell sharply lower on Wednesday amid a volatile session as fears of world economy entering recession shook investor sentiment across. The Sensex dropped as much as 622 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 16,820.
"Markets edged further lower and lost nearly a percent, in continuation of the prevailing corrective phase. After the initial gap-down start, the Nifty recovered sharply in the first half and pared all the losses however selling pressure in the latter half pushed the index again to the day’s low. Eventually, the Nifty index settled at 16,858.60 levels. Most sectoral indices, barring defensive viz. pharma and FMCG, traded in sync with the index and ended lower wherein metal, banking, energy and realty were among the top losers," said Ajit Mishra, vice president at Religare.
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"Markets are not seeing any relief citing feeble global cues and a breakdown of 16,800 in Nifty could further dampen the sentiment. Meanwhile, oversold positions in select index majors may result in a marginal bounce in between. We reiterate our view to focus more on risk management and prefer defensive," Mishra added.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 509.24 points or 0.89 per cent to settle at 56,598.28. During the day, it tanked 621.85 points or 1.08 per cent to 56,485.67.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty declined 148.80 points or 0.87 per cent to end at 16,858.60.
Among the 30-share Sensex pack, ITC, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC and HDFC Bank were the major laggards.
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Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's and Power Grid were among the winners.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended sharply lower.
Stock exchanges in Europe were trading lower in mid-session deals. The US markets ended on a mixed note on Tuesday.
"Investors continue to be sceptical of the domestic market's higher premium amid the ongoing global deceleration while foreign investors are fleeing emerging economies in search of safer havens.
"Although the domestic economy is buoyed by solid fundamentals, the stock market's appetite for risk has been hindered by the rising worries of a worldwide recession," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.
Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.08 per cent to USD 86.20 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2,823.96 crore on Tuesday, according to data available with BSE.
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