The capital regulator wants to replicate the story as seen in the equity segment, where the ETFs and index funds have deepened retail investors’ participation in the markets.

The largest crypto token -- Bitcoin -- has dropped 13 per cent to test $26,500 levels, whereas its counter-peer Ethereum has lost over 28 per cent to breach the $1,750 mark. BNB, XRP, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot and Avalanche dropped up to 35 per cent during the day. Meme tokens such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu took plummeted up to 40 per cent.

In its first rate move in two years and its first hike in nearly four, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40% following a emergency meeting earlier this month. In April, RBI raised its inflation forecast for the current fiscal year to 5.7%, 120 bps above its forecast in February, while cutting its economic growth forecast to 7.2% for 2022/23 from 7.8%.

Dalal Street analysts believe that after the recent rout in IPO or platform-based stocks, Delhivery IPO will test the relish for other upcoming startup IPOs, pipelined to hit primary markets to raise funds with initial stake sales.

Even as the index is in oversold territory, as suggested by the 14-day RSI reading of 27, analysts said the trend broadly stays negative and the index could retest a swing low of 15,670 sooner than later. For the day, the index closed at 15,808, down 359 points or 2.22 per cent.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened steeply lower at 77.52 against the greenback and moved in a range of 77.36 to 77.63 in the day trade. The rupee finally ended at 77.40, down by 15 paise over its previous close. The rupee had settled at 77.25 against the US dollar on Wednesday.

Life Insurance Corp of India’s $2.7 billion share sale, a milestone for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and the biggest ever in the country, had its final size cut by 60% as the war in Ukraine dented risk appetite.

“Cryptos make for a brilliant, volatile market. Kichee and wrapped tokens give it a fair amount of stability. Kichee will interest everyone. Being a wrapped asset and crypto with a cause, Kichee will attract all pockets of crypto investors. We will understand the investors and their responses only after the launch.”

The continent-wide STOXX 600 index slid 1.7%, reversing much of the mid-week gains. Technology, automakers and mining stocks were the top losers among sectors.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 1.77 percent, or 464.92 points, to end at 25,748.72, while the broader Topix index gave up 1.19 percent, or 21.97 points, to 1,829.18.