Closing Bell: Markets halt four-day winning streak, Sensex slips by 621 points, Nifty ends below 17750

Equity benchmarks fell on Thursday tracking weakness across global markets and led by losses in financial, IT and oil & gas shares, pulling the headline indices lower.

Domestic benchmark indices halted the four-day winning streak amid a great surge in Covid-19 cases and a hawkish stance by US Federal Reserve. In the last 24 hours, India has reported 90,928 new Covid cases in a day, this is the highest number in over 200 days. Also, US Fed's December policy meeting has pointed towards faster interest rate hikes to tame persistently high inflation.

At the closing bell on January 6, the Sensex was down 621.31 points or 1.03% at 59,601.84, and the Nifty was down 179.40 points or 1% at 17,745.90. On the market breadth, about 1798 shares have advanced, 1336 shares declined, and 74 shares are unchanged.

The top Nifty losers of the day were JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Shree Cements and Reliance Industries were among the top Nifty losers. Top index gainers included UPL, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and Eicher Motors.

One of the worst performers today was JSW Steel. The stock lost 2.98% to close at Rs673.80.

On a sectoral basis, except auto and oil & gas, all other sectoral indices ended lower with IT and Realty indices slipping 1% each. In the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices ended on a flat note.

According to market analysts, global markets were wounded by heavy selling as Fed meeting minutes pointed to a faster than expected policy rate hike considering elevated US inflation levels. Participants are also watching the rapid spread of covid cases and stricter restrictions being imposed. This would keep the market highly volatile in the coming days.