The Indian equity benchmarks fell for third session in a row on Tuesday dragged by losses in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki. The benchmarks witnessed heightened during the session owing to lack of supportive cues from global markets after two days of carnage on Dalal Street, analysts said. The Sensex fell as much as 636 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 5 index touched an intraday low of 15,659.45.
The Sensex ended 153 points lower at 52,693.57 and Nifty 50 index declined 75 points to close at 15,699.
Meanwhile, market sentiment took a knock after government data showed that wholesale inflation jumped to an all-time high of 15.88 per cent in May from 15.08 per cent in the previous month.
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"The wholesale inflation has continued to grow in the double digits. At 15.88 per cent, which is mostly attributed to rise in the cost of mineral oils, natural gas, and other commodities as compared to the same month in the previous year. Higher crude oil prices and input costs still weigh on the producers and pass-through has resulted in pushing the retail inflation higher. This move also implies that manufacturers are recovering their pricing power, which was weakened due to the pandemic. A good monsoon and ease in tension will assist to lower WPI inflation within the following months, also leading to crude oil prices ultimately putting downward pressure on inflation at large," said D.R.E Reddy, CEO and Managing Partner, CRCL LLP.
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Selling pressure was broad-based as ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Oil & Gas index's over 1 per cent decline. Nifty Private Bank, PSU Bank, Auto, Bank and Financial Services indices also ended lower.
On the other hand, Nifty IT, metal, pharma and realty stocks witnessed buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes fell 0.3 and 0.6 per cent each respectively.
Bajaj Auto was to Nifty loser, the stock fell nearly 5 per cent to close at Rs 3,693 after its board deferred its decision on proposal of share buyback plan.
IndusInd Bank, ONGC, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Life, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and UPL also fell between 1-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Bharti Airtel was among the top Nifty gainers after it unveiled India’s first multiplex on the Partynite Metaverse platform.
Airtel’s Xstream multiplex will be a 20-screen platform with access to content portfolios from leading OTT partners available on the application.
NTPC, Divis Labs, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, Ultratech Cement, Adani Ports, Apollo Hospital and Grasim were also among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,782 shares ended lower while 1,532 closed higher on the BSE.
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