Stock Market Today: Sensex declines 391 points, Nifty holds 17,000-mark

On the Sensex pack, Wipro was the top loser on Thursday declining over 6.5 per cent. It was followed by State Bank of India (SBI), Larsen & Toubro (L&T), ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and HDFC twins – Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and HDFC Bank. On the other hand, HCL Technologies was the top gainer rising over 3 per cent, followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Reliance Industries (RIL).

India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to a five-month high of 7.41 per cent in the month of September and the factory output, measured through the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), witnessed a contraction of (-)0.8 per cent in August, two separate data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed Wednesday.

This is the ninth consecutive time that the CPI print has come above the RBI’s upper margin of 6 per cent. CPI data is primarily factored in by the central bank while preparing their bi-monthly monetary policy. So far in this financial year, the RBI has raised the key interest rate by 190 bps in a bid to check the raging inflation.

“Retail inflation persisting above the desired levels has been a major cause of concern for the Indian economy. This, coupled with declining industrial production in August may not be taken well by the market because Indian economy is anticipated to sustain its resilience. In this backdrop, the impending US inflation figures, which are forecasted to remain high, may cause volatility in the global market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Among sectoral indices, the Bank Nifty fell 1.26 per cent and the Nifty Financial Services declined 1.22 per cent. The Nifty IT too slipped 0.68 per cent.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended at 24,740.93, down 181.01 points (0.73 per cent) and the S&P BSE SmallCap settled at 28,520.55, down 130.18 points (0.45 per cent).

Global Market (from Reuters)

World stocks slipped to a near 2-year low and Japan’s yen was pinned near 1998 levels on Thursday, as investors braced for key US inflation data later likely to shape the size of the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate hike. Global markets have suffered a torrid few weeks and there was little sign of respite in either Asia or Europe as weak equities knocked MSCI’s 47-country world index down for a seventh straight day.

Europe’s region-wide STOXX 600 index was down 0.6 per cent, also down for a seventh straight session. It has fallen nearly 4.3 per cent in the last six days, with markets worried that aggressive global interest rate hikes will trigger recessions.

In Asia overnight, widespread weakness had seen Japan’s Nikkei slip 0.6 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi tumble 1.8 per cent as news that Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC had cut its investment budget by at least 10 per cent pressured the wider region’s tech sector. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.9 per cent, and mainland Chinese blue chips lost 0.3 per cent to leave MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares languishing close to 2 1/2-year lows.