Indices end sharply down; Sensex sheds over 800 points

Mumbai, Aug 29 Benchmark indices ended sharply down on Monday after US Fed chairman Jerome Powell talked about the more rate hike to tame inflation.

At close, Sensex ended 861.25 points or 1.46 per cent down at 57,972.62, and Nifty ended 246 points or 1.40 per cent lower at 17,312.90. About 1,455 shares have advanced, 2,045 shares declined and 203 remained unchanged.

HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra fell more than 3 per cent on Monday. BSE LargeCap were down 1.24 per cent, BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap was down 0.80 per cent and 0.57 per cent, respectively.

"Investors had already got the wind of bearish undertone for the start of the week, after the US Fed chairman's speech on Friday talked about further rate hikes going ahead to tame inflation. And as expected, Sensex crashed nearly 1,500 points in early trades before recovering some ground to close off its day's low," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.

Traders are expecting more bouts of volatility in coming sessions on concerns that continuation of rate hikes in the US could pose a threat to the global economy and hurt growth prospects.

Meanwhile, Reliance Industries conducted its 45th annual general meeting on Monday in which Mukesh Ambani made various announcements.

Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of Jio 5G service by Diwali and it will cover key cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

To make the service available in the country, the company will invest around Rs 2 lakh crore. "We are working closely with all leading global smartphone OEMs and we have their commitment that they will support 5G in India," Ambani said.

Indicating towards a succession plan, Mukesh Ambani introduced his daughter Isha Ambani as head of Reliance Retail who announced launch of FMCG business.

The RIL will invest Rs 75,000 crore in petro-chemicals and textile business.

Isha Ambani also announced launch of two institutions by Reliance Foundation Jio Institute and Nita Mukesh Ambani Junior School as an expansion of Dhirubhai Ambani International School.

Internationally equity market also ended in red. Asian market closed mostly lower tracking Friday's losses on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said tight US monetary policy would be needed "for some time" to tame inflation.

Japan's Nikkei ended 2.66 per cent lower. China had a mixed day with Shanghai Composite Index edging up by 0.1 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.7 per cent. Whereas, European shares fell sharply on Monday.