NIFTY below 22,600, SENSEX drops over 600 points: Here are the key reasons behind today’s market fall

Benchmark indices were under heavy selling pressure today, with NIFTY50 and SENSEX nearly 1% each after scaling all-time highs earlier this week. NIFTY50 is trading below 22,600, while SENSEX declined more than 650 points.

As of 1:30 pm, NIFTY50 trades around 22,572, down 0.80%, while SENSEX trades around 74,417, declining more than 600 points.Sell-off in banking heavyweights like HDFC Bank(-1.0%), ICICI Bank (-1.1%) and Kotak Bank (-0.9%) dragged down the overall markets.

As per experts, weakness in the domestic market comes amid weak global clues, especially in the US markets. The US inflation accelerated for a second straight month to 3.5% in March 2024, which added to concerns of the market participants on interest rate cuts getting postponed.

Besides this, rising US bond yield and crude oil prices, with Brent Crude oil trading near $91 per barrel, remained other key concerns.

Out of the NIFTY50 space, 43 stocks are trading in red. Sun Pharma(-4.0%), Maruti(-2.3%) and Titan(-1.9%) are among top losers, while Eicher Motors(+1.1%), Divi’s Lab(+0.7%) and Tata Motors(+0.7%) are top gainers.

All sectoral indices traded lower today, with NIFTY Pharma (-1.4%), Bank (-0.74%) and Financial Services (-0.80%) among top losers.

Earlier in the day, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) raised India's GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 7% from 6.7% earlier amid expectations of robust growth driven by public and private sector investment demand and gradual improvement in consumer demand.

Sun Pharma (-4.0%) shares declined more than 4% intraday after the USFDA issued Official Action Indicated (OAI) status for the Dadra facility. The OAI status by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) signifies that regulatory or administrative actions have been advised. Read more.

Vodafone Idea share slipped 4.2% after the telecom operator said it plans to raise ₹18,000 crore through follow on public offer (FPO) with a price band of ₹10 to ₹11 per equity share. Read more

Bharti Hexacom made a stellar debut today, with its shares listing at a premium of 32.4% at ₹755 against the issue price of ₹570 per equity share on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BSE. Read more.