Dalal Street had a very bad start to the week on Monday morning as the market fell over 2.5 per cent, tracking global peers. Other factors responsible for such a fall include the US inflation print, which was released on Friday; stoking fears of more aggressive interest rate hikes by Federal Reserve as well as investors’ fear in anticipation of Indian inflation data, due today.  

The benchmark indices denied having a cheerful weekend and witnessed a steep fall with Sensex dipping over 1,000 points. Taking cues from losses in global peers, BSE Sensex plunged 1,114 points intraday before settling at 54,303, down by 1,017 points or 1.84 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty 50 held the 16,200-mark to settle at the 16,202 level, sinking 276 points or 1.68 per cent. 

The equity markets cheered as benchmark indices broke the four-day losing streak supported by strength in oil & gas, financial, IT and pharma shares. However, weakness in metal shares capped the upside gains. Sensex ended 427.79 points higher at 55,320.28 level while Nifty zoomed 121.85 points to end at 16,478.10 level.

In the first hour of the trading session, Sensex and Nifty were able to recover some of the opening losses and traded flat. At the time of market opening, 27 out of 30 stocks on Sensex were trading in the red. The top gainers on Sensex are Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Reliance Industries, and Maruti Suzuki whereas the top losers include Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Power Grid Corporation, L&T, and UltraTech Cement.  

On Wednesday, the benchmark indices remained under pressure post the repo rate hike. RBI hiked the key policy repo rate by 50 bps to 4.90 per cent whereas the markets were relieved, as there was no CRR hike. The repo rate hike by RBI is likely to impact the home loan borrowers, both the existing as well as the new ones. While the hike is positive for the banks and the NBFCs, it is likely to be a burden for the borrowers. 

On Tuesday, investors' chose to book profits on the day ahead of RBI policy outcome. Meanwhile, the 10-year government bond yield settled 0.4 per cent up at 7.53 per cent. On the global front, stock markets traded mixed due to bond sell-off on Wall Street which led to worries about a possible U.S. economic slowdown and raising of interest rates by Australia. 

BSE Sensex tanked over 600 points while Nifty 50 is weak by almost 200 points on Tuesday. BSE Midcap index is down by more than a per cent in line with the key benchmark indices while BSE Small cap index plunged 0.70 per cent.  

On Monday, making a gap down opening and recovering in the afternoon session, the benchmark indices were not able to sustain the gains due to global cues. Sensex ended 93.91 points or 0.17 per cent lower at 55,675.32, and the Nifty shed 18.50 points or 0.11 per cent at 16,565.80. Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were the Top Gainers while Shree Cements, Asian Paints and BPCL were the top losers.

On Friday, the benchmark indices ended marginally lower after making a cheerful start with Sensex opening 500 points on the upside. Amid the volatile session, Sensex dipped more than 600 points from the day's high to settle 49 points lower at 55,769.23 level while Nifty50 lost 44 points to end at 16,584 level.

The benchmark indices closed Thursday's trading session on a positive note with Sensex gaining 436.94 points or 0.79 per cent at 55818.11 level, and the Nifty adding 105.20 points or 0.64 per cent at 16628 level. Reliance zoomed 3 per cent to settle at one-month high, thus contributing 68 points to the Nifty gains. Market gains were kept in check with HDFC, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank qualifying as the main losers.