Mumbai, Dec 17 (PTI) The Sensex plummeted 889 points while the Nifty sank below the 17,000-mark on Friday, in line with a selloff in global markets as hawkish central banks and rising Omicron cases sparked a retreat from riskier assets.
Continued selling by foreign institutional investors put further pressure on domestic bourses, traders said.
The 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 889.40 points or 1.54 per cent to finish at 57,011.74. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 263.20 points or 1.53 per cent to 16,985.20.
IndusInd Bank was the top laggard on the Sensex chart, shedding 4.89 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, HUL, Titan, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv and SBI.
In value terms, Reliance Industries and HDFC twins accounted for around half of the benchmark’s losses.
Only five index components managed to close in the green — Infosys, HCL Tech, PowerGrid, Sun Pharma and TCS, spurting up to 2.84 per cent.
“Weak global sentiments inundated domestic indices as markets are digesting the hawkish stance of major international central banks amid surging Omicron cases,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“While the European Central Bank took a small step in rolling back the crisis-era stimulus although holding down borrowing costs next year, the Bank of England surprised the markets by raising interest rates for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Continued FII selling created tension among domestic investors. Barring IT, all sectors bled,” he added.
During the week, the Sensex slumped 1,774.93 points or 3.01 per cent and Nifty tanked 526.10 points or 3 per cent.
Shibani Kurian, Senior EVP and Head- Equity Research, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, said emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant, inflation concerns and hawkish turn of global central bankers have led to an increase in volatility in equity markets worldwide, including India.
“With inflation increasing in countries across the world, all eyes are on central bankers and the pace of liquidity normalisation adopted by them. India has started seeing new cases of Omicron but the real impact would be known over the next month or so as was seen in previous waves of COVID-19. The pace of vaccinations in India continued to improve steadily,” Kurian noted.
Sectorally, BSE realty, bankex, energy, finance, auto and oil and gas indices lost as much as 3.78 per cent in Friday’s session, while IT and teck mustered gains of up to 1.32 per cent.
Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices slumped up to 2.42 per cent.
World stocks headed lower after more central banks, including ECB, BOE and BOJ, joined the US Fed in dialling back ultra-loose monetary policies despite fears over the fast-spreading Omicron strain.
In Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo ended with losses, while Seoul was positive.
Similarly, stock exchanges in Europe were also largely trading in the red in mid-session deals.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 1.48 per cent to USD 73.91 per barrel.
The rupee pared its initial losses to settle marginally up by 3 paise at 76.06 against the US dollar.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Thursday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,468.71 crore, as per exchange data. PTI ANS ABM ABM
