Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty declined further ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision on key policy rates and amid weak global cues. Sensex opened 169 points lower from the previous day close of 35,169.16 at 35,000.27. At 10.32am, Sexnsex had fallen by 362.78 points to 34,809.14 (1.02 per cent). The NSE Nifty 50 Index declined 1.3 per cent or 140.30 points to 10,458.65, and tumbled to lowest 10,447.95 in the early morning trade.
The 30-share index lost 1,356.98 points in the previous two sessions on continuously falling value of rupee against dollar and boiling crude oil prices. Sectoral indices led by oil and gas PSUs cracked up to 10.27 per cent after the government announced Rs 2.5 cut on fuel, including Re 1 cut by oil marketing companies. Infrastructure, auto and banking stocks are also among hit during the early morning trade.
The shares of BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd), HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd) and IOC (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd) were trading sharply lower by up to 20.50 per cent on nervous selling by investors. The HPCL share is the worst hit among the three as marketing holds the biggest share in its operating income. In the early morning trade, the share of HPCL was trading 19.71 per cent lower at 174.25.
Brokers said investors offloaded their positions, tracking a selloff in global markets as US Treasury surged to multi-year highs on robust economic data and comments from the Federal Reserve, sparking fears of accelerating inflation. Besides, caution ahead of RBI's monetary policy announcement which expected to hike interest rates by 25 basis points, too, dented sentiments, they added.
Shares of ONGC, Bajaj auto, HUL, ITC, M&M, RIL, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Vedanta, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Axis Bank tanked up to 11.27 per cent. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Infosys, Yes Bank, PowerGrid, TCS and Kotak Bank bucked market trend, and were trading in the green, rising up to 2 per cent. Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Strait Times and Taiwan indices fell up to 1.73 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average too ended lower on Thursday.
With PTI inputs