The BSE 30-share index lost nearly 700 points from its intraday high of 60,361.82.
New Delhi: Equity indices fell in the red on Wednesday due to fall in banking and pharma stocks. The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 357 points, or 0.60 per cent, to 59,672 in afternoon deals; While the broader NSE Nifty fell 91 points or 0.51 per cent to 17,798.
The BSE 30-share index lost nearly 700 points from its intraday high of 60,361.82. Both BSE and NSE indices started positive but gave up all their respective gains as the day progressed.
Major laggards in the BSE pack included Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Titan, Hindustan Unilever and PowerGrid, with their shares falling 3.05 per cent. On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), UltraTech Cements, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance and HCL Tech jumped up to 4.37 per cent in afternoon deals.
On the NSE platform, except Nifty Metal and Realty, all other sub-indices fell up to 1.43 per cent with Nifty Private Bank and Pharma.
Shares of State Bank of India (SBI) rose 1.72 per cent to Rs 531. The country’s largest lender reported a record quarterly profit, helped by lower provisions for bad loans. SBI’s net profit rose 66.7 per cent to Rs 7,627 crore ($ 1.02 billion) in the three months ended September 30, from Rs 4,574 crore a year ago.
However, global stocks were hovering at record highs, while money markets and the US Treasury were stable as investors looked to the expected end of the pandemic-era monetary stimulus in the world’s largest economy.
The Federal Reserve is expected to announce a tapering of a $120 billion-a-month asset purchase program in its policy statement at 11:30 p.m.
Conversely, Asian stocks failed to follow strong gains from Wall Street. Markets are almost certain the Fed will be short, but it remains to be seen whether policymakers will give any indication about the possibility of a further interest rate hike next year.
“While confidence remains that the Fed will begin its taper, there are doubts about how sharp they will be on the rate hike front,” analysts at Westpac told Reuters news agency.
.