Markets fall for fourth consecutive day amid weak global clues and rise in US bond yields

Equity markets continued their weak trend on Wednesday with the benchmark NIFTY50 and SENSEX falling nearly 0.7% by Wednesday afternoon.

At market closing, the SENSEX closed at 74,502 after hitting a low of 74,454, while the NIFTY 50 recovered slightly from the day’s low of 22,685 to end at 22,704. Meanwhile, NIFTY Bank saw a steep fall of over 1.5% and closed at 48,501.

SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, and ICICI Bank were the top losers, with each falling more than 2%. Some support to the market was provided by heavyweights like Hindalco, Sun Pharma and Power Grid.

From a sectoral point of view, the NIFTY Pharma index gained 0.79% followed by the NIFTY Metal index which rose 0.52%.

Weakness was seen in the broader markets as well. However, some buying was witnessed in smallcap and microcap stocks.

Here are some of the key factors behind fall in domestic markets

Market jitters before vote counting

Markets continued to fall for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday due to a combination of factors led by nervousness ahead of the election outcome. The vote counting and election result announcement will be on 4 June. With the market already having touched new highs in recent weeks, investors and traders appear to be bracing for the D-day next week.

Rise in US bond yield

Besides this, another key factor behind the fall in the Indian market is surging bond yields in the US. The 10-year US Treasury yield on Tuesday recorded its biggest one-day advance in nearly one month. It closed above 4.5%, the highest level since May 2. Rising bond yields are not good for emerging markets like India, as they lead to foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows.

Investors await key US economy data

Moreover, weak global cues also impacted the domestic markets. Investors are waiting for the US personal consumption expenditure (PCE) data, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge to measure inflation. Since January this year, consumer price inflation in the US has been on an uptrend, and this has led to Fed officials getting more cautious on their interest rate stance. The PCE data release will be a key factor that will guide the Fed in its upcoming monetary policies.

Weakness in the Asian markets has also kept the sentiment downbeat. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was trading lower by 0.77% on Wednesday afternoon while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined by 1.88%.