Closing Bell: Sensex falls 200 points, Nifty down 73 points

Indian equity benchmarks ended with losses for the second
straight session on Monday, in tandem with a bearish trend overseas as
accelerating hostilities in Ukraine and prospects of further rate hikes by the
US Fed soured global risk sentiment. The rupee slipping to another all-time low
against the US dollar amid foreign fund outflows added to the gloom, traders
said.

After plunging over 800 points in intra-day trade, the
Sensex some of the losses to end 200.18 points or 0.34% lower at 57,991.11. The
Nifty fell 73.65 points or 0.43% to end at 17,241.

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The broader indices ended in red with the BSE Mid cap index
was declined 0.87% and the Small cap index down by 0.58%. The only gaining
sectoral indices on the BSE were IT up by 0.91% and TECK was up by 0.73%, while
Consumer Durables down by 1.43%, Power down by 1.30%, Utilities down by 1.12%,
FMCG down by 1.01% and Realty was down by 0.98% were the top losing indices on
BSE.

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Top laggards from the Sensex pack were Asian Paints down by
1.99%, Titan Company 1.86%, ITC 1.80%, Reliance 1.13%, HDFC Bank 1.06%, HDFC
1.02%, Nestle 1.02%, Sun Pharma 0.97%, Kotak Mahindra 0.93%, Bajaj Finserv
0.89% and UltraTech Cement 0.86%.

Among the gainers were Axis Bank up by 2.76%, TCS up by
1.84%, Maruti Suzuki 0.94%, Wipro 0.77%, Infosys 0.75%, Tech Mahindra 0.60%,
HCL Tech 0.52%, Mahindra & Mahindra 0.30% and Hindustan Unilever
0.23%. 

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“Fear of an aggressive rate hike by the Fed on the
back of strong employment data in the US disrupted the global equity trend.
Inflation in the US is forecasted to stay high given low supply and high demand
scenarios. To bring some parity in the economy, the Fed will have to target to
lower demand by increasing the unemployment rate, which is not factored by the
market.

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“In addition, rising crude prices and depreciating
rupee is increasing the risk of imported inflation in India, affecting the
domestic market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Asian markets settled lower on Monday with the Shanghai
Composite down by 1.66%, Hang Seng down by 2.95%, the Jakarta Composite down by
0.46%, and the Straits Times down by 1.22%.

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European stock exchanges were also trading mostly lower in
mid-session deals. The US stock markets had ended deep in the red on Friday.

Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark
declined 0.80% to $97.14 per barrel.

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The Indian rupee recovered most of its initial losses and settled
4 paise lower at a fresh lifetime low of 82.34 against the US dollar on Monday.

According to data available with BSE, foreign institutional
investors offloaded shares worth a net of Rs 2,250.77 crore on Friday.