Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Friday started traded lower on apprehension of aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve. Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve chief, suggested that the US central bank would take steps to curb inflation. He said that hike of 50 basis point rate could be seen in May.
At 10 am, the 30-share BSE platform plunged 560 points to 57,352, while the broader NSE was trading at 17,214, down 178 points.
Among specific stocks, HCL Tech was the top gainer in the morning trade, up 2.19 per cent to Rs 1,123. The other prominent gainers are Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, and Tech M.
On the flipside, Dr Reddy’s Labs, SBI, M&M, HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Nestle India, were the top losers during early trade.
