Indian equity benchmarks made a gap-down start on Wednesday amid nervousness across global markets ahead of a key GDP reading from the world's largest economy. Weak consumer confidence data from the US dampened investor optimism globally, fuelling worries over slowing growth.
The 30-scrip Sensex index fell as much as 564.8 points or 1.1 percent to 52,612.7 in the first few minutes of trade and the broader NSE Nifty50 benchmark slid to as low as 15,687.8, down 162.4 points or one percent from its previous close.
Weakness across sectors pulled the headline indices lower, with financial, IT, FMCG and oil & gas shares being the biggest drags.
Barring SBI Life and Tata Consumer, all the stocks in the Nifty50 basket suffered losses.
IndusInd, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco, Bajaj Finserv and Kotak Mahindra Bank — trading around 2-3 percent lower — were also among the top laggards.
Reliance, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank contributed nearly 250 points to the fall in Sensex.
Asian Paints shares opened lower by Rs 8.9 or 0.3 percent at Rs 2,720 ahead of the paintmaker's annual general meeting (AGM) due later in the day.
ONGC shares opened flat as global crude oil rates cooled off on Wednesday following a three-day winning run. High crude prices boost the profitability of upstream oil companies such as ONGC. Benchmark Brent futures for August dropped 0.5 percent to $117 a barrel after rising more than two percent the previous day.
Overall market breadth favoured the bears, as 531 stocks rose on NSE in early deals against 1,299 that fell.
The India VIX — also known as the fear index — rose as much as 2.8 percent to 22.1.
Deven Choksey of KRChoksey believes the overall direction on Dalal Street continues to be sideways to down.
"That is the problem because after a few days in the market when it is up, suddenly everybody starts to expect that we've probably concluded on the bottom. I don't think that is the case here... On the other side, FIIs are continuously selling whatever is saleable, as a result of which in every upward journey, you are finding selling pressure come back for whatever reasons," he told CNBC-TV18.
Global markets
Equities in other Asian markets fell amid concerns over recession, worsening inflation and elevated oil prices. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell one percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 1.1 percent at the last count.
S&P 500 futures eked out a gain of 0.1 percent. On Tuesday, the three main Wall Street indices tumbled 2-3 percent amid a broad sell-off.
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