Asian markets declined on Wednesday after flamboyant rhetoric from Jerome Powell hurt risk sentiment in the US and lifted the dollar against all major peers.
All major US benchmarks slipped more than 1%, with the S&P 500 index falling the most in two weeks.
During a testimony in the Senate, the Federal Reserve’s chief indicated officials are ready to accelerate the pace of tightening and take inflation to higher levels to take the plunge.
This raised the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 3.99%. Crude oil price was trading near $83, while bitcoin was trading below the $22,500 level.
At 8:18 am, the Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of India’s benchmark Nifty 50, was down 0.76% at 17,717.5.
At the beginning of the week, both the Indian benchmark indices – Sensex and Nifty – closed around 0.7% higher, led by gains in IT and oil and gas stocks.
The rupee strengthened against the US dollar for the second consecutive day due to increase in domestic equities and foreign fund inflows.
Foreign investors remained net buyers in Indian equities for the third consecutive day on Monday. Foreign portfolio investors bought equities worth Rs 721.4 crore, while domestic institutional investors were also net buyers for the ninth day in a row, buying shares worth Rs 757.2 crore.