Sensex declines 350 points ahead of US Fed meet minutes
Indian equity indices opened in the red on Wednesday as investors keenly eyed the US Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes for interest-rate hiking path in 2023. Although a fall in crude oil prices kept the downside capped for the benchmark indices.
BSE Sensex was trading 364 points or 0.59% lower at 60,930 around 10.05 am. Nifty50 was trading at 18,126, down 106 points or 0.59% at the same time.
“Relentless run of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, and China’s Covid crisis will keep investors guarded. Investors will be keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes to trickle in on Thursday. Technically, Nifty’s biggest make-or-break intraday support is now placed at 17,971 mark,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities said.
In the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Infosys, Wipro and TCS were the top laggards, falling over 0.5%. Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, ITC, HCL Tech and HDFC also opened lower.
On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, SBI, ICICI Bank and HUL opened higher.
Sectorally, Nifty Metal fell 0.82% and Nifty IT declined 0.62%. Whereas, Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services opened higher. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 dropped 0.08% and Smallcap50 opened flat.
“Nifty has shown a gradual upmove over the past two days with minimal intra-day range. This denotes a lack of conviction on either side by the participants though mild positive bias prevails for the time being. A move above 18,265 could result in a faster upmove. On the other hand, a breach of 18,080 could lead to a fresh down move,” Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said.
Globally, US stocks edged lower on Tuesday amid worries about high inflation and a possible recession. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.03%, S&P 500 plunged 0.40% and Nasdaq Composite declined 0.76%.
Stocks in Asia were mostly higher in a sign of growing risk appetite on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 1.46%, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.36% and China’s Shanghai Composite surged 0.32%.
Brent crude March futures declined 0.07% to $82.04 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures decreased 0.21% to $76.77 a barrel.