Indian equity benchmarks on Tuesday extended their fall for the third straight session, dragged by technology and state-owned lenders. The momentum in the market was muted amid a volatile trading session today. Asian shares traded mixed ahead of the release of the US Federal Reserve’s policy minutes, due on Wednesday.
At close, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 19 points, or 0.03 per cent, at 60,673. The broader NSE Nifty index fell 18 points, or 0.10 per cent, to close at 17,827. Mid and smallcap shares finished on a weak note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and smallcap shedding 0.36 per cent, respectively. India VIX jumped 4.67 per cent to 14.01.
Underpinned by inflationary concerns, the market is keenly eyeing the US Fed meeting minutes, scheduled to be released tomorrow, for hints on further monetary policy tightening, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Selling pressure in select index heavyweights such as Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) also dragged the indices lower.
The market is watching the geopolitical situation, the movement of the dollar index, and US bond yields, while the flow of FIIs would be another important factor in market direction, said Pravesh Gour, Senior Research Analyst at Swastika Investmart.
A total of 12 out of 15 sectoral indices on NSE settled in the red. Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT underperformed the NSE Nifty by falling 1.79 per cent and 0.88 per cent, respectively.
Three Adani Group stocks — Adani Total Gas, Adani Transmission and Adani Green — tanked 5 per cent, each, to hit their respective one-year low levels.
Among non-Adani Group names, Bank of India and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) declined over 6 per cent, each. UCO Bank, DB Realty and Prestige Estates Projects also fell up to 5.07 per cent. Index heavyweights Infosys and TCS declined up to 1.05 per cent.
On the flip side, Everest Kanto Cylinder, Shilpa Medicare, EKI Energy Services, Ratnamani Metals jumped up to 16.51 per cent. Stocks such as NTPC, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel and HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank) climbed up to 3.22 per cent.
Out of a total of 3,597 stocks that traded during the day, 1,991 settled with cuts while 1,463 others ended higher. The rest 143 stocks stayed unchanged. A total of 172 stocks hit their upper circuit limits on BSE. A total of 177 stocks hit their lower circuit limits.
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