Closing Bell: Indian markets fall over 2% as RBI hikes interest rates by 40 bps

Domestic equity bourses Sensex and Nifty witnessed the worst fall over eight weeks after RBI stunned the markets by announcing a 40 bps repo rate hike.

Indian equity market fell for the third day in a row after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced an interest rate hike to curb the rising inflation. In a surprise move, RBI raised the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40% in an off-cycle meeting held today.

The Reserve Bank had maintained a status quo on key policy rates for almost two years due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the US Federal Reserve is also expected to raise rates by 50 bps when its meeting ends later in the day. Owing to these developments, headline indices lost over 2% on Wednesday.

At the closing bell on May 4, the Sensex was down 1,306.96 points or 2.29% at 55,669.03, and the Nifty was down 391.50 points or 2.29% at 16,677.60. On the market breadth, 825 shares have advanced, 2454 shares declined, and 98 shares are unchanged.

Top Nifty losers on a bleeding day were Apollo Hospitals, Adani Ports, Hindalco Industries, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv, while top gainers include ONGC, Britannia Industries, Power Grid Corporation, NTPC and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

On a sectoral basis, all the indices closed in the red with auto, bank, FMCG, power, metal, realty, healthcare, and capital goods indices down 1-3%. In the broad markets, BSE midcap index shed 2.63% and the smallcap index fell 2.11%.

Also in the news, the much-awaited state-insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) opened for subscription today. At 4:00 pm, the public issue was subscribed 0.54 times.