Indian equity benchmarks fell more than one percent marred by selling pressure in all spaces except healthcare, as nervousness persisted among investors globally after the Fed's third back-to-back hike of 75 basis points in the key US interest rate.

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NSE

Both headline indices fell as much as 1.1 percent in the first few minutes of trade after a mildly lower start. The Sensex tumbled 673.4 points to 58,446.3 at the lowest level of the day so far, and the Nifty50 slumped to as low as 17,438, down 191.8 points from its previous close.

The rupee plummeted below the 81 mark against the dollar for the first time ever.

A total of 30 stocks in the Nifty50 basket began the day in the red. The HDFC twins, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd and Tata Motors were the top laggards.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Coal India, SBI Life, NTPC and PowerGrid — down around one percent each — were also among the blue-chip stocks that fell the most.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, ITC, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp, Shree Cement, Bharti Airtel, Eicher and UPL — opening between 0.4 percent and 2.5 percent higher — were the top gainers.

Barring the Nifty Healthcare, all of NSE's sectoral indices slid into the red soon after a mixed start.

"The global risk-off sentiment is gaining strength aided by a steadily rising dollar, which will impact capital flows into emerging markets including India. Resumption of FPI buying since July has been supporting the rally in India... The near-term market outlook is bearish," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Tata Steel shares rose but Tata Steel Long, Tinplate, Tata Metaliks and TRF fell. The group announced a merger of the four smaller metal companies into Tata Steel.

Rakesh Arora of Go India Advisors told CNBC-TV18 that the merger of group companies with Tata Steel, in his view, is positive from a long-term perspective.

Arora remains neutral on steel stocks.

M&M Financial Services tanked after the RBI directed the company to immediately stop any recovery or repossession operations through outsourcing arrangements until further orders. The regulator, however, allowed M&M Financial to continue with recovery or repossession activities through its own employees.

Overall market breadth was in favour of the bears, as 1,101 stocks advanced and 1,737 declined on BSE in early deals.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets succumbed to negative territory, though with smaller losses than the previous day, as investors reacted to the Fed's latest moves to rein in the pace of rising consumer prices. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent at the last count.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng and China's Shanghai Composite were down 0.3 percent each. Japan was shut for a holiday.

S&P 500 futures were flat. On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 0.8 percent, the Dow Jones 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 1.4 percent amid selling pressure in tech and other growth stocks.

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