Closing Bell: Sensex falls 412 points, Nifty down 126 points

Indian equity benchmarks ended Thursday’s session in
negative territory dragged down by IT and pharma stocks which fell amid fears
of a recession in the global economy. Fitch slashed India’s GDP growth forecast
to 7% from 7.8% for this year.

The Sensex closed at 59,934.01, down by 412.96 points or
0.68% after touching a day’s high of 60,676.12 on gains in auto and capital
goods shares. The Nifty fell 126.35 points or 0.70% to settle at 17,877.40.

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The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Midcap
index gaining 0.31%, while the Small cap index was up by 0.06%. The top gaining
sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 2.06%, Utilities up by 1.99%, Auto
up by 0.84%, Industrials up by 0.52%, and PSU up by 0.28%, while IT down by
1.63%, TECK down by 1.50%, Metal down by 1.09%, Realty down by 1.01% and
Healthcare down by 0.88% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Major laggards from the Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra down
by 3.13%, Infosys down by 2.91%, Tata Steel down by 1.92%, Bajaj Finserv down
by 1.89%, Axis Bank down by 1.70%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.67%, Titan Company
down by 1.61%, UltraTech Cement down by 1.43%, HCL Tech down by 1.33% and Asian
Paints down by 1.30%.

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Among the gainers were Maruti Suzuki up by 3.60%, NTPC up
by 1.60%, Power Grid Corp up by 1.29%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.29%, Larsen up by
0.43%, ICICI Bank up by 0.35% and HDFC up by 0.13%.

The rupee declined by 21 paise to close at 79.73 against
the US dollar, weighed down by a firm American currency and a negative trend in
domestic equities.

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Asian markets settled mixed on Thursday with the Nikkei 225
gaining 0.21%, the Hang Seng up 0.44% while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.16%
and the KOSPI Composite shed 0.40%. The US stock markets had ended on a
positive note on Wednesday.

“Defying the positive trend of global markets,
domestic indices shed their early gains, dragged by losses in IT and pharma
sectors, while mid & small caps outperformed. Fears of a recession in the
global economy exacerbated selling pressure in IT and pharma stocks,” said
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

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Globally, in light of the elevated inflation in the US,
investors are on an edge, assessing the possibility of a higher magnitude of a
rate hike in the next Fed policy meeting, he added.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark slipped 0.04%
to $94.06 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional
investors (FII) offloaded Rs 1,397.51 crore from the domestic equities on
Wednesday.