Benchmark indices on Thursday recovered some ground in yet another session of steep losses following a global sell-off after the US Federal Reserve hinted on Wednesday that it would start raising rates from March.

The BSE Sensex ended with losses of over 581 points at 57276.94 after plummeting almost 1419 points during intra-day trades while the broader Nifty finished with cuts of 167.80 points at 17110.15.

The bearish sentiment also spread to bonds and the rupee. While yields on the benchmark 10-year paper shot up by almost 9 basis points to 6.74 per cent, the Indian currency slumped by 29 paise to 75.07 against the dollar.

This came as the US central bank said on Wednesday that it would start raising interest rates from March, which was in line with expectations. However, the comments of Fed chair Jerome Powell were hawkish as he indicated that if the inflation rate continues to remain firm, it may be forced to go in for more interest rates down the line. His comments led to US stocks coming under pressure even as the greenback gained.

With bourses across Asia and Europe trading in the red, domestic stocks opened lower and sank further as sentiment was weak amid the stand-off between Russia and Ukraine that has the potential of fanning oil prices.

This came at a time Brent crude crossed the $ 90 per barrel mark. There was no tangible buying support, as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue to remain in a sell mode. Provisional data showed that they sold stocks worth Rs 7,094 crore in Thursday’s trading. So far this month, they have been net sellers to the tune of over Rs 22,000 crore.

Reflecting the trend, the 30-share Sensex fell to a day’s low of 56439.36.

However, it recovered some ground on buying in select auto and banking stocks to end lower by 1 per cent or 581.21 points. Axis Bank led the list of gainers rising 2.81 per cent after S&P revised its outlook to positive from stable. It was followed by SBI and others such as Maruti which gained up to 2.75 per cent. HCL Technologies was the top loser falling by 4.17 per cent.

“The domestic equity markets continued to remain weak in line with its global peers. Hawkish US Fed commentary, rising crude oil prices and FIIs selling were the major reasons for the negativity in the market,’’ Siddhartha Khemka, head-retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said.