Market wrap: Sensex, Nifty fall by almost a per cent each; investors get poorer by nearly ₹2 lakh crore in a day

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equity market suffered strong losses on Friday (July 7) as investors jumped to take some money off the table amid weak global cues as concerns over rate hikes grew stronger amid strong US macro data. While there has been a long-running concern that the US economy was slipping into a recession, economic data have been showing that the world's largest economy remains strong despite a series of rate hikes by the US Fed.

Investors now fear that the Fed will raise rates later this month and keep them at elevated levels for a longer-than-expected period to bring inflation sustainably down. As per a Reuters report, "Broader non-farm payrolls data is due at 1230 GMT on Friday and economists polled by Reuters expect the US economy added 2,25,000 new jobs in June versus 3,39,000 in May.

Private US payrolls jumped 4,97,000 last month, the ADP National Employment report showed on Thursday, against expectations for a 2,28,000 increase." Foreign funds pouring into India due to its strong economic outlook and expectations of easing aggressive policies have been boosting the Indian stock market in recent months. However, market observers point out that renewed worries about potential interest rate hikes could dampen foreign investors' confidence in the Indian market and slow down the domestic market's upward momentum.

Sensex opened at 65,559.41 against the previous close of 65,785.64 and hit its fresh record high of 65,898.98 but it slipped into the red soon, plunging 610 points to hit the intraday low of 65,175.74. The 30-share index closed with a loss of 505 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 65,280.45 while the Nifty fell 166 points, or 0.85 per cent, to close at 19,331.80.