Sensex ends 304 pts lower at 60,353, Nifty below 18K; Bajaj Finance down 7%

CLOSING BELL

Domestic markets closed lower for the second consecutive day after traders digested hawkish minutes from the US Federal Reserve's December meeting. Read top reasons behind the fall in markets

Though benchmark indices opened with marginal gains in Thursday's trade, it later nosedived into negative territory. While the S&P BSE Sensex cracked over 600 points to hit day's low of 60,049 levels, renewed buying across metals, auto, pharma stocks helped the benchmark trim losses to close at 60,353 levels, down 304 points or 0.5 per cent. 

The NSE Nifty, on the other hand, closed at 17,992 levels, down 50 points or 0.28 per cent.

Broader markets, meanwhile, outperformed benchmark indices as Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap 100 indices rose up to 0.4 per cent.

Sectorally, Nifty Pharma, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Auto, and Nifty Metal indices were the top performers, as they surged up to 1 per cent. However, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty IT indices were subdued in trade, declining up to 1 per cent.

Among individual stocks, Bajaj Finance was the top laggard on the Sensex index, down over 8 per cent, after the consumer finance reported that assets under management (AUM) grew by 27 per cent year-on-year (YoY), lower than market expectations, to Rs 2.30 trillion as of December 31, 2022. READ MORE

GLOBAL MARKETS

After a hawkish reading of minutes from the US Federal Reserve's meeting, which indicated no rate cuts in 2023, the US equity futures slipped on Thursday. Dow Jones Futures, the S&P 500 Futures, and NASDAQ Futures fell up to 0.2 per cent.

European markets, too, were tepid in today's trade as DAX, Stoxx 600, FTSE 100 indices declined up to 0.2 per cent.

COMMODITIES CHECK
The domestic currency jumped 31 paise to provisionally close at 82.51 against the US dollar. The dollar index, meanwhile, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.04 per cent to 104.21.

In the oil markets, prices of Brent Crude and WTI Crude climbed up to 2 per cent to trade at $79 per barrel, and $74 per barrel, respectively.