Share Market LIVE: Sensex crashes 1416 pt , Nifty below 15,850; IT stocks drag

Good afternoon!

Benchmark indices pared all early gains in highly choppy trade on Wednesday. The 30-share BSE benchmark settled 109.94 points or 0.20% lower at 54,208.53 and the broader NSE Nifty dipped 19 points or 0.12% to finish at 16,240.30. 

What's next? Here are the latest updates!

14:30 pm: Global inflation has become the biggest spoilsport

Parth Nyati, founder, Tradingo said, “Global inflation has become the biggest spoilsport and has derailed the economic growth recovery globally. The post-pandemic inflation which was once believed to be transient has now become an entrenched one.” 

“This has created a huge sell-off and meltdown in the majority of the stock markets globally. India's WPI inflation jumped to a 17-year high, this will force RBI to further hike interest rates. All these factors have collectively led to over a 2 per cent fall in Nifty and Sensex. However, we believe that investors must be greedy when others are fearful and use this opportunity to lap up quality shares with good growth prospects and reasonable valuations,” Nyati added. 

14:00 pm: Sensex crashes over 1400 points, Nifty hovers around 15,800

13:00 pm: Sensex tanks over 1300 points

The benchmark BSE Sensex traded nearly 1,300 points, or over 2 per cent, down at 52,913. On the other hand, the 50-share NSE Nifty index was down 392 points, or 2.41 per cent, at 15,848. On a month-to-date basis, the market valuation of BSE-listed firms has tanked by over Rs 17 lakh crore so far in May 2022. 

12:00 pm: Sensex, Nifty extend losses amid weak global cues

Sensex crashes over 1200 pts, Nifty below 15,900

11:30 am: What's driving the crash!

"Deteriorating macro sentiments such as soaring inflation, recession fears, and the prospect of the Federal Reserve getting even more hawkish will continue to keep benchmarks on the edge. Another main reason for the pessimism can be attributed to relentless selling from the FII camp," said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd. 

10:30 am: ITC on a roll!

Shares of FMCG-cigarette-to-hotel major ITC zoomed over 4 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 279.15 on BSE after the company posted a healthy set of numbers for the quarter ended March 2022.

The stock opened lower at Rs 264.20 amid brutal market selloff. However, it zoomed 4 per cent. With a market capitalisation of Rs 3,40,984.49 crore, the shares stand higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.

The company posted a year-on-year consolidated net profit of Rs 4,196 crore, up 11.7 per cent in the quarter ended 31 March, 2022. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,755.47 crore in the year-ago period.

The cigarettes segment clocked a revenue of Rs 7,177 crore as compared to Rs 6,508 crore in the same period last fiscal. The company also stated that is board recommended a final dividend of Rs 6.25 for the financial year ended 31 March, 2022.

9:30 am: Rupee declines 12 paise to 77.74 against US dollar in early trade

9:18 am: Sensex crashes over 1000 points

All the stocks except ITC were trading in red on Sensex.

9:16 am: Market opens

Sensex crashed over 900 points to 53,255.02 and Nifty also tanked over 300 points to 15,917.40 amid weak global cues

8:40 am: Global updates

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with Target losing around a quarter of its stock market value and highlighting worries about the US economy after the retailer became the latest victim of surging prices.

It was the worst one-day loss for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since June 2020.

The S&P 500 declined 4.04 percent to end the session at 3,923.68 points.

The Nasdaq declined 4.73 percent to 11,418.15 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.57 percent to 31,490.07 points.

Asian stocks tracked a steep Wall Street selloff on Thursday, as investors fretted over rising global inflation, China's zero-COVID policy and the Ukraine war, while the safe-haven dollar held most of its strong overnight gains.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 2 percent in early Asian trading hours, the first daily decline in a week. Japan's Nikkei tumbled 2.4 percent.

8:35 am: SGX Nifty

The Indian equity market is likely to open on a flat note today as SGX Nifty was trading 266 points lower at 15,971.

The Singapore Stock Exchange is considered to be the first indication of the opening of the Indian market.

8:20 am: Market on Wednesday

Benchmark indices pared all early gains in highly choppy trade on Wednesday. The 30-share BSE benchmark settled 109.94 points or 0.20% lower at 54,208.53 and the broader NSE Nifty dipped 19 points or 0.12% to finish at 16,240.30. 

PowerGrid, Tech Mahindra, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, NTPC and HCL Technologies were the biggest laggards on Sensex. 

UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, ITC and Axis Bank were among the gainers.