MUMBAI: After a two-day surge, equity indexes fell in the opening trading on Thursday, going along with a sluggish trend in the world markets.
The pressure was increased further by a negative trend in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and IT counters.
After a shaky start, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 341 points to 57,873.59. The NSE Nifty index as a whole dropped 97.8 points to 17,054.10. The largest stragglers on the Sensex were Asian Paints, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Power Grid, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Among the winners were Tata Motors, Nestlé, Larsen & Toubro, and Bharti Airtel.
Asia’s markets saw declines in Seoul, Japan, and Shanghai, while Hong Kong saw gains.
The American stock market had a disastrous Wednesday.
According to Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, in his premarket opening quote, “Markets may witness a cautious start with the bias tilted towards bears amid weakness in the overnight US markets after the Fed increased interest rates by 25 basis points, which came as expected by the street.
The 30-share BSE benchmark increased 139.91 points or 0.24 percent on Wednesday to close at 58,214.59. To finish at 17,151.90, the Nifty gained 44.40 points, or 0.26 percent.
As this was happening, the benchmark Brent crude price fell by 0.91 percent to USD 75.99 per barrel.
According to market statistics, foreign portfolio investors bought shares of stock worth Rs 61.72 crore on Wednesday.
