The Sensex fell 542 points intraday to a low of 72,081 today (February 22), causing losses in Indian markets. On February 21, the benchmark index finished a little over 400 points lower. The Nifty50 fell to a low of 21,875, breaking below the 22,000 barrier. Sensex had gained 1,500 points in five sessions up until February 20, while Nifty had gained more than 500 points.
Reuters polled economists, however, predicted that India’s stock market will reach new heights by the end of June and rise by almost 9% in 2024, with a drop in the following three months being unlikely.
The following are the main causes of the failure:
- SBI slip, Airtel, and HDFC Bank: Leading companies in several industries saw a decline on Thursday, including Bharti Airtel (down 2%), Bajaj Finance (down 1.7%), HDFC Bank (down 1.5%), HUL (down 1.46%), State Bank of India (down 1.4%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.3%), and Bajaj Finserv (down 1%).
- US Federal Reserve minutes: At the most recent monetary policy meeting, the US Federal Reserve expressed no rush to initiate rate reductions as worries about “upside risks” to inflation started to surface. According to Reuters, this indicates that the Fed will not lower interest rates any sooner since members indicated “uncertainty associated with how long a restrictive monetary policy stance would need to be maintained.” As a result, today’s yields on government bonds increased by almost ten basis points to 7.056 per cent.
- Technical levels: The benchmark indexes created bearish candles on the daily charts as a result of the selling on Wednesday. This suggests that the present values below 21,950/72,350 will continue to decline.