Stock Market Today: Sensex, Nifty Fall On US Fed Meet Jitters, Weaker Rupee

Benchmark indices ended lower on December 8, erasing all the gains they made in the previous session. Both Sensex and Nifty 50 started on a weak note, and the selling pressure intensified as the session progressed.

Sensex fell 609.68 points, or 0.71 per cent, to close at 85,102.69. Likewise, Nifty 50 declined 225.90 points, or 0.86 per cent, to end at 25,960.55.

Market participants were cautious ahead of the upcoming US Federal Reserve meeting later this week. Weakness in the rupee and continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows added to worries.

Broader Market Indices Show Exaggerated Declines

Broader market indices, mirroring the benchmarks, showed exaggerated declines, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 falling 2.61 per cent and the Nifty Midcap 100 declining 1.83 per cent. Nifty 500 index, which represents more than 92 per cent of the free-float market cap of all the NSE-listed stocks, slipped 1.30 per cent. Nifty Microcap 250 index, which captures the performance of the 250 most valuable and actively traded NSE-listed stocks beyond the Nifty 500 constituents, also fell 2.36 per cent.

All Sectors In Deep Red

All the sectoral indices ended in deep red. Dragging the most, Nifty Realty fell 3.53 per cent, Nifty PSU Bank tumbled 2.81 per cent, and Nifty Metal plummeted 1.92 per cent.

Other than that, auto, FMCG, pharma, healthcare, chemicals and consumer durables also fell more than 1 per cent each.

Nifty Bank slipped 0.90 per cent to close at 59,238.55.

Nifty 50: Top Gainers & Losers

Among the Nifty 50 constituents, only Tech Mahindra, Wipro and HCL Technologies closed in green; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), SBI Life Insurance, and Reliance Industries closed around flat levels; the rest all ended in red.

Leading the losses was InterGlobe Aviation, which fell 8.62 per cent, followed by Bharat Electronics, which declined 4.92 per cent, and JSW Steel, losing around 3.71 per cent. Nestle India, Shriram Finance, Eternal (formerly Zomato), Jio Financial Services, Trent, Adani Enterprises, Tata Steel, and Bajaj Finance lost between 2 per cent and 2.5 per cent.

Stock Market Outlook

Market participants will be tracking further updates on the long-delayed India-US trade deal. However, the biggest event later in the week is the US Federal Reserve's policy outlook, which is set to be announced on December 10.

Further weakness in the rupee could also prompt more FII outflows. The rupee weakened for the second consecutive day on December 8, trading at 90.25 against the US dollar, down 0.31 points, or 0.35 per cent, as of 4:48 PM.

Dilip Parmar, senior research analyst at HDFC Securities, attributed the fall in the rupee to the Reserve Bank of India's decision to reduce the benchmark interest rate and introduce accompanying liquidity measures. "This policy easing, combined with prevailing risk-averse market sentiment and continued foreign fund outflows, further contributed to the rupee weakness," Parmar added.