Topics
Indian markets | benchmark indices | US Federal Reserve
Sundar Sethuraman | Thiruvananthapuram Last Updated at August 23, 2022 01:18 IST
https://mybs.in/2axtMVc
The benchmark indices posted their worst single-day fall in over two months as fears of the Federal Reserve's aggressive monetary policy and its impact on global growth resurfaced after a break-neck rally from this year’s lows in June.
Profit-booking after over 17 per cent gains in just two months added to this fall.
The Sensex ended the session at 58,774, down 872 points or 1.46 per cent — most since June 16, a day before the index hit this year’s low of 51,360. The Nifty50 index closed at 17,490, following a drop of 267 points or 1.5 per cent; only five of its components managed to end in the green.
The latest bout of risk aversion comes ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. Fed chairman Jerome Powell’s speech at the central bankers’ gathering will be the key focus for the markets. Last week, two voting members of the Federal Open Market Comm-ittee emphasised the need to continue raising rates until inflation eased to the 2 per cent target.
The rupee, too, weakened intraday but recovered later to 79.86 versus the dollar. Still, it slipped 8 paise over the previous close. India's 10-year bond yield, on the other hand, rose slightly to 7.27 per cent.
“Before the statements by Fed officials, the prevalent view was that inflation has been handled well and there won’t be many hikes required. But that has now backfired because of the recent statements. Moreover, there is no solution in sight to the geopolitical crises over Taiwan and Ukraine. The July flows to mutual funds were not good; people are taking money out of equities after a while. A lot of individual investors are booking profits. Even domestic institutions need to keep some dry powder as they may need some cash if there are more redemptions,” said U R Bhat, co-founder, Alphaniti Fintech.
The acceleration of Fed balance sheet reduction — also known as quantitative tightening — is another headwind facing the market. The availability of liquidity, along with low interest rates, fuelled one of the biggest bull runs in recent times, after the Covid-19 onslaught.
All the major global indices, except the Shanghai Composite index, were in the red. The American markets, too, opened weak.
"In the absence of any domestic trigger, the focus has again shifted back to global cues. Even valuations are not supportive at the current levels. The markets are likely to consolidate in the near term, until the risk-reward turns favourable,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
All the 19 sectoral indices of the BSE ended in the red. The market breadth was weak, with 2,387 stocks declining and 1,172 advancing. ICICI Bank, the stock of which fell 2.1 per cent, contributed most to the Sensex decline. Tata Steel and Asian Paints were the biggest losers.
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
PREVIOUS STORY
NEXT STORY
Copyrights © 2022 Business Standard Private Ltd. All rights reserved.
Upgrade To Premium Services
Business Standard is happy to inform you of the launch of “Business Standard Premium Services”
As a premium subscriber you get an across device unfettered access to a range of services which include:
Premium Services
In Partnership with 
Dear Guest,
Welcome to the premium services of Business Standard brought to you courtesy FIS.
Kindly visit the Manage my subscription page to discover the benefits of this programme.
Enjoy Reading!
Team Business Standard
