Markets sink to five-month lows on gloomy macro data, Fed comments

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks crashed to five-month lows on Thursday as lacklustre macroeconomic data and hawkish comments from the US Fed further dented risk appetite.

After a weak opening, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged more than 750 points in late-afternoon trade, before finally ending at 37,018.32, down by 462.80 points or 1.23 per cent.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty dropped 138 points or 1.24 per cent to close below the key 11,000-mark at 10,980.00.

This is the lowest closing level for both the key indices since early March.

Weak economic data, unabated foreign fund outflows and disappointing quarterly earnings also weighed on market sentiment, traders said.

On the global front, the US Federal Reserve reduced the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points to 2.0-2.25 per cent on Wednesday for the first time in more than a decade.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the move was not the beginning of a rate cut cycle, sending global markets lower.

In the Sensex pack, Vedanta took the biggest hit (5.55 per cent), followed by Tata Motors, SBI, Yes Bank, Bharti Airtel and Infosys, which lost up to 4.50 per cent.

On the other hand, Maruti, Power Grid, Reliance, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, HUL and NTPC ended in the green, spurting up to 1.86 per cent.