Markets End Sharply Lower On Yellen Comments; Nifty Drops Below 8400 Points

Business

oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Updated: Monday, May 25, 2015, 15:34 [IST]

Benchmark indices ended the day lower following comments by Fed Chair, Janet Yellen that interest rates could be hiked later this year.

The Sensex closed the day with losses of 313 points, while the Nifty fell 88 points in trade at 8370 points. Several of the Asian and European markets were closed for trade. However, the Shanghai Composite and the Japanese Nikkei rallied to multi-year highs despite comments of a likely default by a government official in Greece.

Among the stocks that lost ground and dragged the indices lower was ITC, which fell sharply following quarterly results that lagged estimates.

Other heavyweights that lost ground were HDFC and L&T. Tech stocks which have been seeing buying support over the last few days saw some selling pressure with Infosys and TCS among the losers. However, HCL Tech gained ground after investors bought into the stock.

Tata Steel lost ground after it was downgraded by a foreign brokerage firm. Vedanta was the other metal company that fell along with Hindalco.

Among non index stocks Claris Lifesciences fell a huge 10 per cent after its results failed to meet expectations.

The rupee was marginally weak in trade at 63.61 to the dollar. Poor cues in the domestic stock market pushed the currency lower.

GoodReturns.in