Sensex drops 715 points, Nifty holds 17150 in broad-based sell-off; banks sink

Benchmark indices, which seemed to be recovering from morning losses, lost ground yet again in the fag-end of the session as investors dumped stocks across the board. Sentiment remained tepid throughout the day after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said overnight that a half-percentage point rate hike is “on the table” for next month.

While Bank, Financial Services, Pharma, and Metal indices were the worst hit (down around 2 per cent each), Auto, FMCG, and IT indices were the least hit sectors, down 0.6 per cent each.

Overall, the S&P BSE Sensex index shed 714.5 points to end at 57,197, and the Nifty50 index tumbled 221 points to shut shop at 17,172. Both the indices hit intra-day lows of 57,135 and 17,149, respectively.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index and Smallcap index slipped 0.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, in the money market, 10-year government bond yield hardened by 0.46 percent to hit 7.17 per cent-mark in India. Globally, the 5-year US Treasury yield topped the 3 per cent-mark in early deals.

Borosil Renewables surges 13% ahead of board meet for fund raise. The company will mull fund raise, which may include issuance of equity shares or any other securities of the company, through preferential issue on a private placement basis.

HCL Technologies gained 3% in a weak market post stellar Q4 results. HCL Tech has guided for revenue growth of 12-14 per cent CC in FY23 on the back of continued traction in the services business, healthy deal intake and deal pipeline.

Rallis India slumped 9% on disappointing Q4 results. The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 14 crore in March quarter on higher raw material cost.

LIC IPO size may be cut to Rs 21K cr; issue likely to hit market on May 2. The size of the Life Insurance Corporation of India’s (LIC’s) initial public offering (IPO) may be slashed to Rs 21,000 crore, said people in the know. The IPO, however, may come with a greenshoe option of Rs 9,000 crore. The total IPO size, after accounting for the greenshoe option, will work out to Rs 30,000 crore and will lead to 5 per cent dilution of the government stake.

Here are some picks from the week gone by.