NEW DELHI: A less than expected dovish US Fed comments sent the US and Asian equities lower, thus leading to a weak start for the domestic benchmark indices back home.The US Fed hiked rates for the fourth time this year, by 25 bps, despite a stock-market selloff.
The Fed trimmed the number of rate hikes they foresee in 2019, to two from three and the policy makers signalled they may soon pause their monetary tightening campaign.
Powell dashed investor hopes for a more dovish policy outlook.Asian peers Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai were trading in the red in morning deals.
Moreover, rupee shed 28 paise against the greenback post US Fed's rate hike decision.Around 9:30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 178.19 points, or 0.49 per cent, lower at 36,306.14, while its NSE counterpart Nifty declined 56.90 points, or 0.52 per cent, to 10,910.40.
On Sensex, four stocks gained while 26 declined.
Asian Paints was the biggest gainer, advancing almost a per cent.
Other gainers were YES bank, MM and Sun Pharma.
Asian Paints was the top contributor, while HDFC was the biggest drag.On the other hand Vedanta ruled the red zone, falling 2.51 per cent.
Other losers included Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Powergrid, Wipro and Adani Ports.On Nifty, only two stocks were advancing while 48 declining.On the BSE sectoral front, barring FMCG, Healthcare and Realty all other sectoral indices witnessed a bearish sentiment.
Top sectoral losers were metal, telecom, utilities and power.BSE Midcap index opened flat, while BSE Smallcap witnessed minuscule gains of 0.23 per cent.