Sensex today: Stock benchmark indices extended losses in intraday trading on Thursday amid weak global cues, as the US Fed stuck to forecasts for another rate hike this year and signaled rates would stay higher for longer.
For 2024, policymakers now expect the fed funds rate to end at 5.1 percent, up from June’s forecast of 4.6 percent. However, Fed chief Jerome Powell said the central bank will “proceed with caution.”
The S&P BSE Sensex fell to a low of 66,219 and fell 450 points around 66,350. The NSE Nifty50 touched a low of 19,738 and fell over 100 points to 19,785.
ICICI Bank, TCS and HCL Technologies were the top losers among the Sensex 30 stocks, each down over 2 per cent. Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, ITC, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other notable losers.
Meanwhile, broader indices fluctuated across zones with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap falling around 0.2 per cent each after recovering into the positive zone earlier in the day.
Among individual stocks, SJVN fell 10% as the government starts selling partial shares through OFS today.
Global signals
In the US, the Nasdaq fell 1.5 percent overnight, and the S&P 500 fell almost one percent. However, Dow ended with a modest loss of 0.2 percent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei, Hang Seng, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan fell about 1 percent each.