MARKET TURNS VOLATILE ON FED, BOE RATE SIGNALS

The domestic stock market closed mixed after the US Fed and later even the Bank of England announced interest rate hikes ahead of the new year, while the global markets traded in the green.

The broader market fell on Thursday as the underlying sentiment remained bearish though Sensex and Nifty-50 managed small gains after a volatile session due to gains in heavyweight Reliance Industries and IT stocks Infosys, TCS, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra.

The Sensex gained 113 points or 0.20 per cent, closing at 57,901.14 in a highly volatile session and after briefly trading in the red. The Nifty-50 gained 27 points or 0.16 per cent, closing at 17.248.40.

The BSE Mid-cap fell 0.70 per cent and BSE Smallcap fell 0.65 per cent. Most sectoral indices closed in the red barring BSE IT, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas.

"Overall the market remains in a tight range with bearish undertones as selling pressure is intact at higher levels," said Siddhartha Khemka, head-retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

After the US Federal Reserve announced 3 rate hikes each in 2022 and 2023, the Bank of England on Thursday said that it would raise interest rates from the record low of 0.1 per cent to 0.25 per cent, the first such move by any major central bank since the start of the pandemic.

The US central bank also decided to begin reducing monthly bond purchases by $30 billion each month faster than the earlier proposed $15 billion per month, which would suck liquidity from the emerging markets, experts said.