Sensex down 413pts, Nifty holds 17,850; Ceat soars 20%, MRF 7%; IT stks dip

CLOSING BELL: IT, pharma, and select metal stocks reeled under pressure today with Hindalco, Infosys, Cipla, Tech M, Tata Steel, Divis Labs, and Apollo Hospitals leading the list of Nifty losers

MARKET LIVE: Sensex down 450 pts; Nifty tests 17,850; Broader indices firm

CLOSING BELL

Stock market highlights: After starting firm on Thursday, benchmark indices slipped into the red to end lower for a second straight day. The S&P BSE Sensex declined 810 points from the day's high to hit a low of 59,866 during the day. It, eventually, recouped some of the losses to end at 59,934, down 413 points or 0.68 per cent.

The NSE Nifty, meanwhile, hit a low of 17,861, but ended at 17,877, down 126 points or 0.73 per cent.

IT, pharma, and select metal stocks reeled under pressure today with Hindalco, Infosys, Cipla, Tech M, Tata Steel, Divis Labs, and Apollo Hospitals leading the list of Nifty losers. Additional losers were Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, Titan, HDFC Life, and IndusInd Bank, and Bajaj Finance.

On the upside, banking and auto stocks zoomed with Maruti Suzuki, Eicher Motors, HDFC, SBI, ICICI Bank, and M&M rising up to 2.6 per cent. Adani Ports, NTPC, PowerGrid, Grasim, and Coal India were other gainers.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices advanced 0.3 per cent, and 0.06 per cent, respectively.

Primary market

The three-day IPO of Harsha Engineers International received a bumper response on the second day. Till 3:30 PM, the issue was subscribed 7 times, with retail portion at 7 times, NII at 15.40 times, QIB at 50 per cent, and Employees at 5 times.

4:12 PM

GLOBAL CHECK: European markets mixed post modest gains in global markets

4:10 PM

GLOBAL CHECK: US equity futures inch up as rate hike fears recede

4:04 PM

World shares mostly higher after wobbly yield of gains on Wall Street

The central bank has already raised its benchmark interest rate four times this year, with the last two increases by three-quarters of a percentage point. READ MORE

3:55 PM

MARKET COMMENT: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Defying the positive trend of global markets, domestic indices shed its early gains, dragged by losses in IT and pharma sectors, while mid & small caps outperformed. Fears of a recession in the global economy exacerbated selling pressure in IT and pharma stocks. Mid & small caps are expected to continue its trend in the short to medium term as they are trading reasonably well compared to large caps and at a discount to their historic valuation. Globally, in light of the elevated inflation in the US, investors are on an edge, assessing the possibility of a higher magnitude of a rate hike in the next Fed policy meeting.

3:51 PM