Markets close 1% lower, Sensex crash 462 points

New Delhi: Markets ended sharply down on Thursday in line with global markets following the US Federal Reserve's hawkish comments after slashing the interest rates by 25 basis points

The BSE Sensex fell 462.80 points or 1.23 percent to 37,018.32 while the NSE Nifty dropped 138.00 points or 1.24 percent to 10,980.00.

Slashing its rate, first since 2008, Fed said it is not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts.

Major losers in the Sensex pack were Vedanta, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Yes Bank, Infosys, Tata Steel, L&T, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HDFC and HCL Tech, falling upto 5.55 percent. Bucking the trend shares of Maruti, Powergid, RIL, Bajaj Auto, Heromoto corp, HUL and NTPC ended in green, rising upto 1.86 percent.

Meanwhile, Cafe Coffee Day shares hit lower circuit for the third day in a row since CCD founder V.G. Siddhartha mysteriously disappeared and was found dead on Wednesday. The CCD shares stood at Rs 110.95 apiece.

In the previous session on Wednesday the Sensex gained 83.88 points or 0.22 percent to end at 37,481.12 while the Nifty closed 32.60 points or 0.29 percent higher at 11,118.00.

Foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 1,497.07 crore on a net basis, provisional data showed.