Bloodbath in D-Street after Fed officials warned about US economy

RIL, banking, TCS stocks drag down Sensex lower by more than 1,100 points

stock-trading-bse-reuters [File] Hindustan Unilever was the only Sensex stock trading in the green | Reuters

Reliance Industries, banking stocks and Tata Consultancy Services dragged benchmark equity index Sensex lower by more than 1,100 points on Thursday, amid a selloff in global equities after US Federal Reserve officials warned the US economy was worse than the market was pricing in.

Expiry of September derivatives contracts amid a bearish sentiment, added to investor woes. The broader NSE Nifty 50 index fell 1.7 per cent to 10,942 and the S&P BSE Sensex slid 1.9 per cent to 36,954.94. Both the indices have lost more than 4 per cent so far this week.

Hindustan Unilever was the only Sensex stock trading in the green. IT majors Infosys and TCS contributed the most to the benchmark’s decline as they dropped 4.58 per cent and 6.41 per cent, respectively. Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries shed 1.46 per cent.

Shares of Oil and Natural Gas Corp fell 2.1% after a fire broke out at one of its plants in Gujarat, its Hazira gas processing plant in Gujarat on Thursday morning.

In the previous session, Sensex settled 65.66 points or 0.17 per cent lower at 37,668.42, while Nifty shed 21.80 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 11,131.85.

Some traders were also worried the government might consider bringing in fresh restrictions and hurt businesses, following a report that the finance ministry was reassessing its earlier optimism about a V-shaped economic recovery.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,912.44 crore on a net basis on Wednesday. According to traders, heavy sell-off in US equities in overnight session, negative cues from Asian peers and foreign fund outflow hit investor sentiment here.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with heavy losses in mid-day deals tracking weakness on Wall Street. Stock exchanges in the US ended up to 3 per cent lower in overnight session on concerns over economic recovery. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.03 per cent lower at $41.34 per barrel. 

(With PTI inputs)

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