MUMBAI: There was no respite for investors as equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 declined for the fifth trading session in a row on Tuesday to hit five-month low driven by concerns over interest rate hikes and the fallout of failure of two US-based banks.
BSE Sensex fell 337.66 points or 0.58% to settle at 57,900.19. During the session, it touched a high of 58,490.98 and a low of 57,721.16. The broader NSE Nifty declined 111 points or 0.65% to end at 17,043.30, with 38 of its scrips ending in the red. Sensex has plunged 2,447 points or 4.1% while Nifty tanked 711 points or 4.6% in the four days to Tuesday. Investors have lost Rs 9.8 lakh crore in wealth in the last four days as the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined to Rs 256.4 lakh crore from Rs 266.2 lakh crore, according to provisional exchange data.
According to analysts, continuous foreign capital outflows, investors junking riskier assets ahead of the US Fed policy decision and fears of interest rate hikes to stifle global economic recovery have hit the market sentiment.
“The selling continued while the degree of ambiguity over the US Banks reduced due to supportive measures announced by the US Federal Reserve. The underlying issue of the market is high-interest rates, which will continue to wreak havoc in the world economy. Yields will take time to moderate to the long-term trend given the hawkish monetary policy & high inflation,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said.
“However, the disruptive development in the US Banks and a slowing economy have created a precursor to presume that yields will peak in the near future, supported by a change in monetary policy from hawkish to neutral, which will diminish the worries of long-term investors,” Nair said.
Bandhan Bank, Adani Transmission, Ambuja Cements, M&M, Piramal Enterprises, Bandhan Bank, and, Wipro, TCS were among the worst-hit stocks on Tuesday while Titan, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and L&T were among the gainers.
Among sectoral indices, IT declined 1.4%, teck fell by 1.08%, power by 1.06%, realty by 1%, auto by 0.99%, financial by 0.54% and bankex by 0.42%. Only capital goods index closed marginally up 0.12%.
