Sensex ends 323 points lower, banking and metal stocks crack

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices traded lower on Thursday on the back of weak global cues after the US Federal Reserve indicated that interest rate could stay close to zero for years.

Market watchers said India-China border tensions and a continuing upsurge in coronavirus cases also dampened the investor sentiment. The BSE S&P Sensex was down by 323 points or 0.82 per cent at 38,980 while the Nifty 50 lost by 85 points or 0.74 per cent at 11,519.

Except for Nifty IT and pharma, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative terrain with Nifty metal down by 1.4 per cent, PSU bank by 1.2 per cent and financial service by 1.1 per cent.

Among stocks, metal major Hindalco cracked by 4.3 per cent to close at Rs 175.85 per share. ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance dropped by 1.6 per cent each.

The other major losers were Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Bharti Infratel and Larsen & Toubro.

However, Dr Reddy’s moved up by 4.2 per cent to Rs 4,823 per share while HCL Technologies gained by 2.2 per cent and Infosys by 1 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Grasim and Coal India also traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks fell after the US Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low for years till the inflation reaches its 2 per cent target. But it stopped short of offering further on stimulus to shore up a battered US economy.

Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.67 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled by 1.56 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi was down by 1.22 per cent.