Indian indices ended lower on Wednesday following weakness in global peers. Back home, losses in banking and financial stocks, especially blue chips including Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and ICICI Bank further dragged the sentiment.
The Sensex ended 537 points lower at 56,819 while the broader Nifty lost 162 points to settle at 17,038. Amid broader markets, the Nifty Midcap index fell 0.9 percent while the Nifty Smallcap index lost 0.7 percent in today's trade.
"The real worry for markets now is a possible sharp global slowdown triggered by the coming aggressive monetary tightening in the US, severe Covid-related lockdowns in China and woes in the Euro Zone caused by the Ukraine war. The dollar index moving above 102 and the US 10-year bond yield dipping to 2.7 percent reflect this growth slowdown fears," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
On Sensex, Tata Steel, Asian Paints, TCS, HCL Tech and RIL were the top gainers while, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Titan and Dr Reddy's led the losses.
Meanwhile, On Nifty, Hero Moto rose the most, up 4 percent in today's session. Tata Steel, Asian Paints, Divi's Labs, and TCS were the other 4 top gainers. Among losers, Bajaj Finance fell over 7 percent and Bajaj Finserv lost over 4 percent. Tata Consumer, Shree Cement and Adani Ports fell between 2 and 3 percent each.
All sectors were also in the red for the day. Nifty Fin Services fell the most, down 1.5 percent followed by Nifty Bank, down around a percent. Nifty FMCG, Nifty Auto, Nifty IT, and Nifty Pharma also shed over hald a percent each during the day.
Vijayakumar added that in India there are clear signs of improvement in business sentiments. Investors can use the sharp dips in markets to buy value stocks like the leading banks.
Bajaj Finance fell over 7 percent in trade today even after the company reported its highest ever consolidated net profit of ₹2,420 crore, a 79.67 percent year-on-year jump for the fourth quarter.
