Equity markets witnessed a massive sell-off on Thursday afternoon, with the benchmark BSE Sensex plummeting over 1,000 points and the NSE Nifty 50 dropping over 350 points as aggressive selling wiped off early gains.
By 2:00 PM IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex sank 1,063 points to trade at 71,575.16, while the broad-based NSE Nifty fell 359.45 points to trade at 22,243.60.
The steep afternoon decline built upon a weak opening earlier in the morning. The NSE Nifty had opened 61.05 points (0.27%) lower at 22,542.00, while the BSE Sensex opened down 176.54 points (0.24%) at 72,462.16.
Thursday’s rout comes immediately after Wednesday’s session, where indices snapped a two-day winning streak following the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) surprise decision to raise the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50%—its first rate hike in nearly four years.
The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously for the interest rate hike while shifting its stance from “neutral” to “calibrated tightening”. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra indicated that near-term rate cuts are off the table, signaling a prolonged period of tighter monetary policy.
The hawkish policy stance, coupled with rising crude oil prices and weak global cues, triggered widespread panic selling across banking, IT, and consumer goods stocks, driving benchmark indices to their lowest intraday levels of the week.
