Sensex & Nifty witness sharp dip; Vedanta touches 52-week high, Adani Power gains 5 per cent, SBI Cards declines

On Wednesday, the domestic benchmark indices struggled to stay afloat in the positive territory. A sudden plunge towards the end of today's trading session resulted in Sensex closing at 49,801.62 levels, down by 562.34 points or 1.12 per cent while Nifty fell by 189.15 points or 1.27 per cent to settle at 14,721.30 levels.  

Sensex tumbled by around 760 points from its day's high of 50,561.12. 

While IT and FMCG stocks seem to be in a safe profit-taking space; banking, financial & metal stocks, on the contrary, dragged.

Bears dominated equity markets today amid a broad-based sell-off. Investors seem to remain cautious awaiting any optimistic view to be given for faster economic recovery than previously expected by the US Federal Reserve, which will end its two-day meeting later today. Thursday's trading session is expected to see the impact of the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's meeting. 

On Wednesday, Asian markets remained mixed with increased volatility. South Korea's KOSPI index declined by 0.64 per cent while Japan's Nikkei and China's Shanghai Composite indices closed flat with a negative bias. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up by 0.022 per cent. In the European markets, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 were trading down by 0.28 per cent and 0.19 per cent, respectively while DAX traded flat with a positive bias. 

Sensex gainers included ITC that surged 1.20 per cent, Infosys gained 0.21 per cent, TCS rose by 0.13 per cent and HDFC increased by 0.12 per cent.  

Sensex draggers were made up of ONGC that plunged 4.95 per cent, NTPC tumbled 2.92 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries inched lower by 2.80 per cent, SBI fell by 2.75 per cent, IndusInd Bank declined by 2.54 per cent, RIL decreased by 2.16 per cent, Bajaj Auto went down by 2.15 per cent, etc. 

Today on BSE, all the sectoral indices were painted in red. BSE Oil & Gas index was the biggest loser, declining by 3.22 per cent. It was followed by BSE Power index, which plunged 2.87 per cent. BSE Auto index tumbled 1.78 per cent while BSE Healthcare index slipped by 1.98 per cent. BSE FMCG index was also down by 0.47 per cent.  

Broader markets underperformed as BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid-Cap index dived down by 2.12 per cent and 2.28 per cent, respectively.