Indian equity benchmarks
continued to trade lower in red terrain in the afternoon session, with the
Sensex losing over 400 points and the Nifty falling below the 18,000 level,
amid Weak Asian cues. Sentiments were dampened as US Federal Reserve hiked interest
rates by 75 basis points and indicated it would raise the rate more often than
markets had expected.

The Sensex was trading at
58,963.58, down by 493.20 points or 0.83% after trading in the range of
58,881.99 and 59,403.05. On the index, 8 stocks were advancing and 22 stocks
declining.

Also Read | How the US Federal Reserve’s rate hike impacts RBI policy

The broader indices were
trading in red with the BSE Midcap index down by 0.52% and the Small cap index
down by 0.33%. The only gaining sector on the BSE was FMCG up by 0.76%, while
Bankex was down by 1.53%, Realty down by 1.30%, Energy down by 1.29%, Oil &
Gas down by 1.20% and PSU was down by 1.16% were the top losing indices on BSE.

Also Read | How Indian economy could suffer from a US Fed rate hike

The top gainers on the
Sensex were Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.58%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.41%, ITC up
by 1.33%, TCS up by 0.71% and Asian Paints was up by 0.65%. On the flip side,
Bajaj Finserv shed 3.28%, Power Grid 2.83%, Axis Bank 2.21%, HDFC Bank 1.73%
and HDFC 1.68%.

The Nifty was trading at
17,570.90, down by 147.45 points or 0.83% after trading in the range of
17,544.30 and 17,708.25. On the index, 11 stocks were advancing and 39 stocks
declining.

Also Read | How US Fed rate hike impacts the Indian rupee

The top gainers on Nifty
were Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.49%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.44%, ITC up by
1.38%, Eicher Motors up by 1.19% and Britannia Industries up by 0.96%. Bajaj
Finserv down by 3.35%, Power Grid Corp down by 3.15%, SBI Life Insurance down
by 2.59%, Axis Bank down by 2.22% and Coal India down by 2.18% were the top
losers.

Also Read | How the US Fed rate hike impacts your savings and loans?

Asian markets were trading mostly in the red with the Hang Seng
decreasing 318.79 points or 1.73% to 18,125.83, Nikkei 225 slipped 159.30
points or 0.58% to 27,153.83, Taiwan Weighted dropped 139.89 points or 0.97% to
14,284.63, KOSPI fell 14.90 points or 0.63% to 2,332.31, Straits Times trembled
8.30 points or 0.25% to 3,253.49 and Shanghai Composite was down by 1.09 points
or 0.03% to 3,116.09.