After opening the day on a negative note, Indian share markets extended losses as the session progressed and ended deep in the red.

Indices came under pressure and saw a steep fall, especially in the final hour of trading.

Indian investors shared the pessimistic sentiment with their global peers after Fed maintained its hawkish tone on Wednesday.

US central bankers see the policy rate, now in the 4.25%-4.5% range after Wednesday's 50-basis-point increase, rising to 5.1% by the end of next year.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood inched lower by 879 points (down 1.4%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 245 points (down 1.3%).

Britannia, Hero Motocorp, and NTPC were among the top gainers today.

Tech Mahindra, Titan, and Infosys on the other hand were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,463, down by 288 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets settled on a positive note. The BSE MidCap inched 1.1% lower while the BSE SmallCap index dived 0.6%.

Barring the oil & gas sector, all sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the metal sector, realty sector, finance sector, and banking sector witnessing most of the selling.

Shares of Britannia, Apollo Tyres, and Federal Bank hit their 52-week highs today.

GHCL's share price, which was falling for consecutive sessions, bucked the trend and rose over 3% today.

Asian stocks ended in the red tracking overnight losses on Wall Street.

The Hang Seng inched lower by 1.6%, while the Shanghai Composite index ended lower by 0.3%. The Nikkei edged 0.4% lower.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note. Dow futures are trading down by 0.8% while Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 1.3%.

The rupee is trading at 82.8 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading lower by 1.1% at Rs 54,674 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 2.4% at Rs 67,650 per kg.

Here are four reasons why Indian share markets plunged today.

#1 Interest Rate Hike

The US Fed raised interest rates overnight by another 50 basis points and surprised the markets by projecting a further 0.75 bps increase by the end of 2023. Due to this, the Indian equity market and markets across the globe came under pressure.

#2 Selling in Heavyweight stocks

The benchmark indices fell over 1% driven by weakness across heavyweights like Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, and Titan, among many other stocks.

#3 Rupee factor

The rupee has been falling for quite some time now. Today, continuing the trend, the rupee depreciated 15 paise to 82.6 against the dollar, tracking the strength of the dollar and a negative trend in domestic equities.

The rupee's depreciation often leads to the discontinuation of FPI buying in India.

#4 FIIs slow down

After a sharp revival of FIIs inflows in November, so far in December 2022, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have sold nearly Rs 500 bn worth of equities.

We will keep you updated as to how these factors play out in the coming days.
 

L&T Bags two significant orders

In the news from the engineering sector, L&T was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Engineering and construction behemoth Larsen & Toubro's hydrocarbon business has secured two significant orders.

Though the company has not revealed the exact value of the orders, the contracts fall under the 'significant' category that ranges between Rs 10 billion (bn) to Rs 25 bn.

This five-year contract is for Integrated O&M of the upstream oil and gas processing facility at Raageshwari gas terminal and associated gas well pads and south satellite fields, located in Rajasthan.

Further, the company's Advent business vertical has received an order for the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) of a Hydrogen Generation Unit (HGU) from Matheson Tri-Gas.

The EPC work of the project will be executed under a stringent timeline of 30 months by the company.

Larsen & Toubro is an Indian multinational engaged in EPC projects, hi-tech manufacturing, and services. It operates in over 50 countries worldwide.

The company has rewarded investors with 10 bonuses over the last 7 decades and the CAGR over the last 20 years stands at an impressive 25.6%.

L&T has been an investor's favorite stock for a long time and also a stock that makes it to the top 5 infrastructure stocks.
 

Biocon initiates clinical study of Itolizumab

Moving on to news from the Pharma sector, Biocon's share price fell 1% today.

Biotechnology major Biocon initiated a clinical study in collaboration with Equillium Inc to evaluate the efficacy of Itolizumab in patients with Ulcerative Colitis.

This study done by the company will cover several tertiary hospitals specialized in handling UC cases.

Commenting on it, Biocon, in an exchange filing, said,

This is a phase two randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo and active-controlled (adalimumab), two-treatment period study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Itolizumab for the induction of remission in biologics naive patients with moderate to severely active Ulcerative Colitis.

The first patient to participate in the test was screened on 1 December 2022.

The development also underpins the company's commitment to bringing innovative, affordable medicines.
 

Kalpataru Power Transmission bags new orders

Moving on to news from the power sector, Kalpataru Power Transmission was also among the top buzzing stocks today.

Kalpataru Power Transmission bagged new orders worth Rs 13.9 bn in the transmission and distribution (T&D) segment.

The orders have been secured in India and overseas markets in the T&D business.

These orders are in addition to the orders declared earlier in the year.

Following the orders, the order book of the company, so far in 2022, has reached Rs 157.8 bn.

The company is one of the largest engineering procurement and construction (EPC) companies engaged in power transmission & distribution, oil & gas pipeline, railways, and civil infrastructure business.

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