Domestic benchmarks saw a muted opening in early trade on Friday as investors digested a slew of hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve officials that indicated the central bank was not done with aggressive interest rate hikes yet.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 index were mostly unchanged at 61,751.61 and 18,345.50, respectively.

Fed officials fired more warning shots on interest rates while rising coronavirus cases in China and liquidity strains in its bond market added to uncertainty.

Related Stories
Is it a good time to invest in small-cap funds now?
Going by historical trends, years where small-cap stocks have lagged are followed by years of outsized returns

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said late on Thursday that rates might need to hit a range from 5 per cent to 7 per cent to be "sufficiently restrictive" to curb inflation, a blow to investors who had been wagering rates would peak at 5 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors bought a net of ₹618 crore worth of equities on Thursday, while domestic investors purchased ₹449 crore of shares, provisional data on the National Stock Exchange showed.

The Nifty IT index was the top sectoral gainer, rising 0.50 per cent.

comment COMMENT NOW