Sensex Falls A Modest 70 Points, Despite A Deep Sell-Off In Global Stocks

Indian equity benchmarks fell on Thursday to extend losses from the previous session after the US Federal Reserve's hawkish stance on future rate hikes, sapping risk appetite. 

The sell-off spread in the wake of the S&P 500's 2.5 per cent drop overnight after Fed Chief Jerome Powell's press conference, with global stocks and US futures lower on Thursday.

It was not very different for Indian stocks, albeit the decline was modest.

The BSE Sensex index fell 69.68 points to close at 60,836.41, and the broader NSE Nifty index declined nearly 0.2 per cent to end Thursday at 18,052.70. But both benchmarks recouped some losses from earlier in the session.

The Sensex pack's main laggards included Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, NTPC, Infosys, Wipro, HDFC, Tata Consultancy Services, and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Among the winners were State Bank of India, Titan, Bharti Airtel, and Hindustan Unilever.

"Our market has not reacted too negatively till now because we have been seeing good foreign investor inflows in the last three-four days," Neeraj Dewan, Director at Quantum Securities, told Reuters.

"There have been pretty strong corporate results. What the Fed does will be data dependent."

For the fourth time in a row, the Fed increased interest rates by 75 basis points, bringing the top of its target range to 4 per cent, the highest level since 2008.

"Every time the market gets a little bit of dovish hope, it gets smacked on the nose with a rolled up newspaper," Scott Rundell, Chief Investment Officer at Mutual Ltd, told Bloomberg. "There's a lot of volatility still ahead."

Investors are worried about how tightening monetary policy would affect economic development, and Mr Powell made it clear that he is willing to raise interest rates as high as necessary to combat inflation, even at the cost of a recession.