Sensex Today: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened lower on Tuesday as global equities fell on fears of further rate hikes from the US Fed. The BSE Sensex fell 300 points to 62,542 and the NSE Nifty50 fell 80 points to 18,619.
Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Infosys, Power Grid, TCS, Nestle led losses on the Sensex, to 1.8 percent, while Hindalco was Nifty’s biggest loser.
On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Ultratech Cement, SBI Life, HDFC Life and Coal India were the top outperformers in the two indices.
The broader markets also opened weakly. The BSE MidCap fell 0.16 percent and the SmallCap index remained flat.
Rupee opens:
The Indian rupee opened 12 paise lower at 81.91 per dollar from its previous close of 81.79.
Mohit Nigam, Fund Manager & Head – PMS, Hem Securities, said: “Investors are waiting for the conclusion of the RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting before making significant moves. The conclusion of the conference will be made public on 7 December. The Reserve Bank of India MPC is forecast to announce a rate hike of 35 basis points (bps). India’s foreign exchange reserves rose for the third week in a row in the week ending Nov. 25, reaching $550.14 billion. The country’s reserves totaled $547.25 billion in the week ending Nov. 18. However, Indian equities managed a comeback during yesterday’s session, aided by a strong estimate in services activity.”
Global signals
US equities fell overnight as strong ISM service activity for November, at 56.5 percent versus a 53.7 percent estimate, fueled fears that the US Fed would continue monetary tightening, even with risks of high economic costs.
The Dow fell 1.4 percent, the S&P 500 1.79 percent and the Nasdaq 1.93 percent.
Also in Asia, the Hang Seng index fell 0.48 percent in early trading this morning. Mainland China’s Shanghai Composite and Strait times fell to 0.4 percent. Nikkei made marginal gains.
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