Stock market updates:Domestic equity markets continued to bleed for the fourth consecutive session amid a broad-based sell-off. All the sectoral indices ended the day in the red with the Nifty Realty, Metal, and PSU Bank indices dropping up to 3 per cent. The Nifty Pharma, Private Bank, and Auto indices, meanwhile, skid up to 2 per cent.
At the headline level, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended at 49,802 levels, down 562 points or 1.12 per cent, while the Nifty50 settled at 14,721 levels, down 189 points or 1.27 per cent. In the intra-day trade, the Sensex and the Nifty indices hit a low of 49,719 and 14,696 levels, respectively.
26 of the 30 constituents on the Sensex and 48 of the 50 constituents on the Nifty tanked on the indices today with BPCL, Tata Motors, ONGC, Coal India, Adani Ports, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma, Hero MotoCorp, IndusINd Bank, and SBI leading the list of losers. All these counters declined between 2 per cent and 5 per cent.
On the upside, only ITC, Infosys, HDFC, and TCS ended the day in the green, advancing up to 1.5 per cent.
Reversing their outperformance over the past few days, broader markets today underperformed their large-cap peers with the S&P BSE MidCap index sliding 2.28 per cent, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index skid 2.12 per cent.
Buzzing stocks
Shares of SBI Cards and Payment Services declined up to 5.12 per cent to Rs 969.6 on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Wednesday after over 40 million equity shares changed hands via block deal. At close, the stock was quoting 4.4 per cent lower at Rs 977.
READ MORE Shares of Indigo Paints hit their lowest level since listing at Rs 2,375, down 2.8 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday. The stock was trading lower for the fourth straight day, having fallen 5.5 per cent during the period. With four days of decline, the stock of Indigo Paints has corrected 29 per cent from its high of Rs 3,348 touched on February 3, 2021.
READ MORE On the contrary, shares of Vedanta hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 230, up 2 per cent on the BSE, in the intra-day trade on Wednesday after the promoter, Vedanta Resources Plc, raised the open offer price for buying shares in flagship Indian firm to Rs 235 per share from Rs 160 per share earlier. At close, the stock was at Rs 223, down 1 per cent.
Global markets
Asian and European indices dropped on Wednesday as investors waited to see if the US Federal Reserve will signal a faster path toward policy normalisation than previously expected. The US central bank ends a two-day meeting later in the day.
An index of regional equities excluding Japan pulled back 0.5 per cent, led by declines in South Korea’s Kospi. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.3 per cent. Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat to slightly lower, while the broader Topix index bucked the trend to rise 0.1 per cent. In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index edged 0.02 per cent lower.
(With inputs from Reuters)