Sensex drops over 1,300 points, and the Nifty slips below 15,900

Domestic equities indices, which track global markets, fell for the second day in a row on Monday. The benchmarks started the day with a 2% drop ahead of the FOMC minutes. The Nifty 50 index fell below 15,900 points, and the Sensex dropped over 1300 points to open around 53,200. Both indices started the day at 15,877.55 and 53,184.61, respectively.

Following the benchmarks, the Nifty midcap and smallcap indexes both fell more than 2% in early trade.

Banks, IT, and financial services were the worst hit sectors, with all other indices trading in the red in the first hour.

The Sensex fell more than 1100 points (2 percent) in pre-market trading, with all 30-share index firms falling into the red.

In early trade on Monday, all major Asian indices were trading in the red. The SGX Nifty Futures contract, which signals the start of trading in the Indian market, was down 320 points, or over 2%, in early Monday activity on the Singaporean Exchange.

Furthermore, the Nikkei 225, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, and China’s Shanghai Composite all fell by 2.8 percent, 2.9 percent, and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Due to historic inflation, the US stock market closed in the red on Friday. The Dow Jones finished 2.7 percent lower, the Nasdaq 3.5 percent lower, and the S&P500 2.9 percent lower.