Carnage on Dalal Street as Nifty closes below 15,400; all sectors end in red

Only three stocks, namely, Nestle, Britannia, and HUL emerged as the top gainers amongst Nifty stocks while Tata Steel, Hindalco, Coal India, and ONGC plunged over 5 per cent each.  

Market update at 3.30 PM: Indices witnessed severe profit-booking as Nifty plunged over 2 per cent while Sensex shredded 1,045 points. Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap slipped over 2.34 per cent & 3.42 per cent, respectively.  

Despite opening higher due to good global cues, the fear of recession & aggressive interest rate hikes gripped the equity market while heavy selling led to the carnage on D-street. With this, all the sectors closed in the red.  

Only three stocks, namely, Nestle, Britannia, and HUL emerged as the top gainers amongst Nifty stocks while Tata Steel, Hindalco, Coal India, and ONGC plunged over 5 per cent each.  

The advance-decline ratio stood at 246:1,716, which largely turned in the favour of the bears.  

With this, uncertainty looms around the Indian equity market as it shows no signs of bottoming out.   

Market update at 2.25 PM: Nifty crashes over 3 per cent from its day’s high and has hit a fresh 52-week low. Sensex has lost over 1,000 points while the sentiments are largely bearish. Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap have slipped over 2.45 per cent & 3.20 per cent, respectively.  

Nifty has broken the crucial support level of 15,500 while the next support lies at 15,200, followed by 15,000.  

Market update at 11.10 AM: Indices lost all the pre-opening gains and are currently flat. Nifty is down by 2 points. The mid-cap indices are flat while the small-cap indices are marginally down.   

Realty, metal, pharma, and media are trading weak while banks & IT are holding on to their gains. Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, and Apollo Hospitals are the top gainers whereas ONGC, Hindalco & Bharti Airtel have slipped over 2 per cent each.    

Meanwhile, the advance-decline ratio stands at 1,068:811.  

Market update at 9.35 AM: Indices are trading higher amid good global cues. Nifty is up by 0.67 per cent while Sensex has gained over 430 points. The mid-cap and small-cap indices are also trading higher.  

All the sectors are trading higher at the beginning of the session while India VIX has slipped over 6 per cent amid such positivity. 

Pre-market update: Last night, the US markets witnessed an amazing short-covering rally as Nasdaq surged 2.50 per cent while Dow Jones rose by a per cent post US Federal meeting outcome.
On Wednesday night, US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced a rate hike of 75 bps, which was largely expected by the market. A need for inflation to bring down to normal levels without causing an economic recession was primarily emphasised by Fed Chairman. Moreover, he added that a further aggressive hike of 75 bps is possible. US Fed's determination to bring down inflation keeping intact a strong labour market was welcomed by the market.
As stated clearly by US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, "We're not trying to induce a recession now. Let's be clear about that. We're trying to achieve 2 per cent inflation with a strong labour market, that's what we're trying to do."
With this, the Asian markets have opened higher, and SGX Nifty indicates a gap-up opening of about 130 points.
In the last trading session, the FIIs have sold to the tune of Rs 3,531 crore while the DIIs bought about Rs 2,588 crore worth of equity. 
Nifty is expected to open around the level of 15,800 and bullish sentiment is expected to cool off India VIX to a greater extent.