Indian equity benchmarks made a weak start on Wednesday tracking global peers, as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials and impending additional sanctions on Russia by the West hurt investor sentiment.

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NSE

The BSE Sensex opened 360.8 points or 0.5 percent lower at 59,815.7 and the broader blue-chip index Nifty50 at 17,842.8, down 114.7 points or 0.6 percent from its previous close. Financial, auto and tech stocks pulled the headline indices lower, though metal stocks lent some support.

HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consumer, HDFC Life, TCS, M&M and Wipro were the top laggards in the Nifty pack, declining 0.6-1.3 percent in early deals.

Coal India, UPL, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Apollo Hospital, BPCL, Adani Ports, and JSW Steel were the top gainers, rising 0.5-2.8 percent.

The HDFC twins, Reliance Industries , TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest contributors to the loss the 30-scrip index.

Crude oil rates hovering around $103 a barrel on supply concerns and sluggish leads from overnight Wall Street trade are expected to keep investors on the back foot, said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, expects the market to consolidate around the current levels with subdued volatility in the near term. He expects selling at higher levels with valuations being at elevated levels.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets slipped, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 1.3 percent in early hours. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down nearly two percent.

Oil prices fell on pressure from the rising dollar and growing worries that new coronavirus cases could slow demand, despite ongoing supply concerns.

S&P 500 futures slipped 0.1 percent. On Tuesday, Wall Street indices fell following hawkish comments from the Fed governor. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.8 percent, the S&P 500 1.3 percent and the technology stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite 2.3 percent.

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