After opening the day on a negative note, Indian share markets extended losses as the session progressed and ended deep in the red.
Indices came under pressure and saw a steep fall, especially in the final hour of trading.
Indian investors shared the pessimistic sentiment with their global peers after Fed maintained its hawkish tone on Wednesday.
US central bankers see the policy rate, now in the 4.25%-4.5% range after Wednesday's 50-basis-point increase, rising to 5.1% by the end of next year.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood inched lower by 879 points (down 1.4%).
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 245 points (down 1.3%).
Britannia, Hero Motocorp, and NTPC were among the top gainers today.
Tech Mahindra, Titan, and Infosys on the other hand, were among the top losers today.
The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,463, down by 288 points, at the time of writing.
Broader markets settled on a positive note. The BSE MidCap inched 1.1% lower while the BSE SmallCap index dived 0.6%.
If you're looking to midcap stocks that offer growth in the long run, check out the 5 midcap stocks for long term.
Barring oil & gas sector, all sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the metal sector, realty sector, finance sector and banking sector witnessing most of the selling.
Shares of Britannia, Apollo Tyres, and Federal Bank hit their 52-week highs today.
GHCL share price, which was falling for consecutive sessions, bucked the trend and rose over 3% today.
If you're interested in knowing which shares to trade, read our guide on the best intraday stocks for today.
Asian stocks ended in the red tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.
The Hang Seng inched lower by 1.6%, while the Shanghai Composite index ended lower by 0.3%. The Nikkei edged 0.4% lower.
US stock futures are trading on a negative note. Dow futures are trading down by 0.8% while Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 1.3%.
The rupee is trading at 82.8 against the US$.
Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading lower by 1.1% at Rs 54,674 per 10 grams.
Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 2.4% at Rs 67,650 per kg.
Here are four reasons why Indian share markets plunged today.
The US Fed raised interest rates overnight by another 50 basis points and surprised the markets by projecting further 0.75 bps increase by the end of 2023. Due to this, Indian equity market and markets across the globe came under pressure.
The benchmark indices fell over 1% driven by weakness across heavyweights like Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, Titan, among many other stocks.
The rupee has been falling for quite some time now. Today, continuing the trend, rupee depreciated 15 paise to 82.6 against the dollar, tracking strength of the dollar and a negative trend in domestic equities.
Rupee's depreciation often leads to discontinuation of FPI buying in India.
After a sharp revival of FIIs inflows in November, so far in December 2022, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold nearly Rs 500 bn worth of equities.
We will keep you updated as to how these factors play out in the coming days.
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In the news from the engineering sector, L&T was among the top buzzing stocks today.
Engineering and construction behemoth Larsen & Toubro's hydrocarbon business has secured two significant orders.
Though the company has not revealed the exact value of the orders, the contracts fall under the 'significant' category that ranges between Rs 10 billion (bn) to Rs 25 bn.
This five-year contract is for Integrated O&M of the upstream oil and gas processing facility at Raageshwari gas terminal and associated gas well pads and south satellite fields, located in Rajasthan.
Further, company's Advent business vertical has received an order for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of a Hydrogen Generation Unit (HGU) from Matheson Tri-Gas.
The EPC work of the project will be executed under a stringent timeline of 30 months by the company.
Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multinational engaged in EPC projects, hi-tech manufacturing and services. It operates in over 50 countries worldwide.
The company has rewarded investors with 10 bonuses over the last 7 decades and the CAGR over the last 20 years stands at an impressive 25.6%.
L&T has been an investor's favorite stock for a long time and also a stock that makes it to the top 5 infrastructure stocks.
Moving on to news from the Pharma sector, Biocon share price fell 1% today.
Biotechnology major Biocon initiated a clinical study in collaboration with Equillium Inc to evaluate the efficacy of Itolizumab in patients with Ulcerative Colitis.
This study done by the company will cover several tertiary hospitals specialized in handling UC cases.
Commenting on it, Biocon, in exchange filing, said,
The first patient to participate in the test was screened on 1 December 2022.
The development also underpins the company's commitment to bringing innovative, affordable medicines.
Moving on to news from the power sector, Kalpataru Power Transmission was also among the top buzzing stocks today.
Kalpataru Power Transmission bagged new orders worth Rs 13.9 bn in the transmission and distribution (T&D) segment.
The orders have been secured in India and overseas markets in the T&D business.
These orders are in addition to the orders declared earlier in the year.
Following the orders, the order book of the company, so far in 2022, has reached Rs 157.8 bn.
The company is one of the largest engineering procurement and construction (EPC) companies engaged in power transmission & distribution, oil & gas pipeline, railways and civil infrastructure business.
And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.
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