Sensex slips nearly 50 points after Fed meeting sparks fears

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT and Teck indices were the top gainers, up 0.34% and 0.31%, respectively. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Mumbai: The 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex on Thursday was trading marginally lower tracking weak Asian stock markets after the US Federal Reserve cut its bond-buying programme by another $10 billion to $55 billion per month.

At 9.24am, the Sensex fell 47.12 points, or 0.22%, to 21,785.74, while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) 50-share Nifty was trading down 22.05 points, or 0.34%, to 6,502.

The Fed indicated that interest rates could rise six months after it stops buying assets to exit its monetary stimulus.

Fed meeting is likely to squeeze liquidity from the US markets which could possibly lead to investors pulling out from emerging markets such as India.

Among the Sensex stocks, the gainers included Infosys Ltd that jumped 0.82% to Rs.3,298.35, while Wipro Ltd rose 0.52% to Rs.547.85.

Among the losers, Axis Bank Ltd shares lost 2.68% to Rs.1,349 apiece, while Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) fell 1.25% to Rs.2,015.5.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT and Teck indices were the top gainers, up 0.34% and 0.31%, respectively. However, the Capital Goods and Bankex indices were down 0.59% and 0.54%, respectively.

Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL) was trading at Rs.383.75, up 2.13% from its previous close, while Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd (MCX) was trading at Rs.515.5, up 2.52%, after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) declared FTIL unfit to hold a stake in any stock exchange or clearing corporation and gave it 90 days to divest its holdings in such entities.

Polaris Financial Technology Ltd was trading at Rs.198 on BSE, up 8.02%, after the company said it is planning to demerge its products business into a separate entity.

Since the beginning of this year, the BSE Sensex has gained 2.82%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $1.59 billion from local equity markets.

Overnight, US markets ended lower following Fed chairperson Janet Yellen’s comments. The S&P 500 fell 0.6%, Nasdaq Composite was down 0.6% while Dow Jones Industrial plunged 0.7%.

Asian markets were trading lower on Thursday as investors took fright at the prospect of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was down 0.91%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.21%, while China’s Shanghai Composite was up 0.35%.

Rahul Kumar

1st year PGDM