India’s stock market benchmark fell on Thursday, pulling back from a four-month high on weakness in IT, healthcare and oil and gas stocks. Globally, investors remained cautious amid fears of an economic slowdown. However, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting eased some fears of a sharp interest rate hike in the COVID era. After opening lower, the two major indexes fell 0.5% in the first few minutes of trading.

The Sensex fell 291 points to 59,969.1, its lowest level for the day, while the Nifty 50 fell to 17,863.5, down 80.8 points from its previous close.

A total of 26 stocks in the Nifty50 basket opened in the red. The biggest laggards were Dr Reddy, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Infosys and HDFC Bank.

IndusInd, Grasim, Bajaj Finance, HDFC and Hindalco – all down around 0.5% – were also the biggest blue-chip losers.

On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Cipla, Bajaj Finserv and Apollo Hospitals rose as much as 0.5% to lead the gains.

VK Vijayakumar, the chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said the continuation of the hawkish stance could affect investor sentiment on Wall Street but not the bullish sentiment in India.

“The return of the FII has completely changed the mood in India, and the bulls are now calling the shots. There may be a dip in the short term,” he said.

Fundamentally, the market will not be triggered higher in the absence of valuation comfort, Vijayakumar added, with Nifty trading at around 21 times 2022-23 earnings. IRCTC rose 2.4% to Rs 685 per share on the NSE as the shares traded ex-dividend.

In block trade, Sona BLW Precision shares fell 5.9% to an intraday low of Rs 507.2. As many as 10.2 crore Sona BLW shares, representing a 17.2% stake in the company, changed hands at Rs 510 each, worth Rs 5,200 crore. Overall breadth on Wall Street favoured bulls, with 1,914 stocks advancing and 981 declining on BSE.

Wall Street indexes closed at session lows, and stocks in other Asian markets edged lower after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting suggested officials may not be as aggressive as previously thought. MSCI’s broadest Asian-Pacific shares index outside Japan last down 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.8%. S&P 500 futures fell 0.1%. All three major US stock indexes fell 0.5-1% on Wednesday.