Indian equity markets snapped a two-day rally and ended lower on December 15 amid weak global markets and selling across the sectors.
At Close, the Sensex was down 878.88 points or 1.40% at 61,799.03, while the Nifty was down 245.40 points or 1.32% at 18,414.90.
Amid weak global cues, post an expected 50-bps rate hike by the US Fed, domestic indices started on a flat note and extended the losses as the day progressed, closing near the day's low.
"The Fed has startled the market by maintaining its hawkish tone, as investors were expecting a softer approach after the release of better-than-expected inflation numbers," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial.
"IT stocks led to pessimism in the domestic market as recession fears grew in the global economies following the Fed’s comments. The market now awaits the BOE and ECB decisions, which are likely to follow a half-point hike," Nair added.
Stocks and sectors
Tech Mahindra, Titan Company, Infosys, HDFC and Eicher Motors were among the biggest Nifty losers, while Britannia Industries, Hero MotoCorp, SBI Life Insurance, NTPC and Sun Pharma were the top gainers.
All the sectoral indices ended in the red with Nifty Bank, information technology, metal and PSU bank down 1-2 percent, while auto, energy, FMCG and pharma were down more than 0.5 percent each.
The BSE midcap and smallcap indices lost 0.6-1 percent.
On the BSE, the information technology index shed 2 percent, while bank, capital goods, FMCG, metal and realty indices were down 1 percent each.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 200 percent was seen in IRCTC, Federal Bank and BHEL.
A short build-up was seen in IRCTC, Ambuja Cememt and Vodafone Idea, while a long build-up was seen in Piramal Enterprises, Godrej Consumer Products and Gail India.
On the BSE, L&T Finance Holdings, IDBI Bank, Kamat Hotels, State Bank Of India, Britannia Industries, Punjab National Bank, Apollo Tyres, Bank Of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Dhanlaxmi Bank touched their 52-week high.
Outlook for December 16
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas
With the minor degree bounce in the last couple of sessions, the Nifty had retraced 61.8% retracement of the previous decline. The index formed a distribution near the key Fibonacci level throughout the day on December 14. Thereon the index nosedived on December 15.
Structurally, the index is moving down towards the lower end of the short term consolidation range i.e. 18,300. Buying support can be expected again near 18,300. Overall, the short term consolidation range of 18,300-18,700 remains intact.
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