Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever were among the top drags on the Sensex
The Indian equity benchmarks fell for second straight session on Tuesday mirroring losses in global markets dragged by selling pressure in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever. The Sensex fell as much as 666 points and Nifty 50 index briefly dropped below its important psychological level of 17,500.
The Sensex declined 388 points to close at 58,576 and Nifty 50 index fell 145 points to settle at 17,530.
Global stocks and Wall Street futures sank Tuesday as investors waited for U.S. inflation data amid unease about higher interest rates, Chinese efforts to contain coronavirus outbreaks and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Seoul fell. Shanghai and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices rose more than $3 per barrel.
Investors were waiting for U.S. consumer price data and a new round of corporate results to see how profits are affected by inflation that is at a four-decade high.
Markets are uneasy about plans by the Federal Reserve and other central banks to try to cool inflation by rolling back ultra-low interest rates. Adding to their anxiety are Russia’s attack on Ukraine and China’s decision to shut down most businesses in Shanghai, its commercial capital, to fight coronavirus outbreaks, news agency AP reported.
Back home, selling pressure was broad-based as twelve of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Realty index's nearly 3 per cent decline. Nifty Oil & Gas, Metal, PSU Bank, Media, FMCG and Auto indices also fell between 0.8-2.7 per cent.
On the other hand, select banking and financial services shares witnessed buying interest.
Broader markets underperformed their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 1.92 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 1.58 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Adani Green Energy surged nearly 4 per cent to close at Rs 2,801 after the company said that its total operational capacity increased by 56 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 5,410 MW compared to 3,470 MW for the same period last year. The sale of energy units increased by 84 per cent YoY to 2,971 million units in the March quarter compared to 1,641 million units for the same period in FY21.
Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock fell nearly 6 per cent to close at Rs 543. Coal India, Grasim Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Bharat Petroleum and Reliance Industries also declined between 2-5 per cent.
On the flipside, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI Life were among the notable gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 2,250 shares ended lower while 1,172 closed higher on the BSE.