Stocks recover after steep fall on more Fed rate hike signals

Mumbai: The stock market recovered after falling more than 2 per cent over the US Fed's hawkish statement on Wednesday that indicated more rate hikes in 2022 than earlier stated in December.

Stocks globally fell on Thursday after the Federal Reserve stuck to plans for an interest rate increase in March and more policy tightening to curb high inflation.

The Sensex plunged 1418.79 points intra-day to 56439.36 but recovered later on a volatile futures & options expiry day to close 581.21 points or 1.00 per cent down at 57,276.94. The Nifty-50 closed 0.97 points or 167.80 points down at 17110.15 as it recovered after falling to 16866.75.

IT stocks were the biggest losers and the BSE IT Index fell 3.10 per cent, led by HCL Tech (-4.17 per cent), Tech Mahindra (-3.66 per cent), Wipro (-3.22 per cent), TCS (-3.18 per cent) and Infosys (-2.53 per cent).

Foreign portfolio investors were again big sellers by Rs 6,266.75 crore while domestic institutions were net buyers by Rs 2,881.32 crore.