At close, the Sensex is down 1491 points or 2.74% at 52842.75, and the Nifty was down 382 points or 2.35% at 15863.15, as the US and European Union mulled boycotting importing oil from Russia. Consequently, fears of tighter oil and gas supplies, higher inflation, and, thus, faster-than-expected rate hikes by global central banks hit investor sentiment. Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Infosys, ITC, and Tata Steel were the top gainers in the Sensex pack.,ONGC, Hindalco, Coal India, UPL, Cipla, ITC, NTPC, and JSW Steel were the additional gainers on the Nifty. On the downside, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Britannia, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors, Ultratech Cement, ICICI Bank, SBI, Hero Moto, HDFC, L&T, HUL, RIL, and HDFC Life were the losers in the Sensex pack.The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices closed 2.2 percent lower each. Sectorally, indices of rate-sensitive sectors such as Auto, Realty, Bank, Financial Services fell between 4 and 5.5 percent.
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