Indian equity markets traded under pressure on Tuesday amid weak global cues and heavy selling in banking and auto stocks. After a weak opening, losses in the Sensex and Nifty widened, with selling across banking, auto and metal stocks weighing on the benchmark indices. The Nifty fell below the key 22,700 level, while the Sensex declined by around 488 points.
Weakness in major heavyweight stocks also weighed on the market. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors PV came under selling pressure. Bajaj Finance and Tata Steel also declined. In contrast, buying in pharma and select IT stocks helped limit the market’s losses to some extent.
In early trading on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex was down 488.35 points, or 0.67%, at 72,283.37. The NSE Nifty declined 146.05 points, or 0.64%, to 22,634.10.
The difference between advancing and declining stocks remained relatively narrow. Around 920 stocks were trading higher in early trade, while 864 stocks declined. A total of 174 stocks showed little change.
Besides weak global cues, selling in banking and auto stocks in the domestic market added pressure on the benchmarks. Market participants were also tracking upcoming economic data, the direction of global markets and company-related developments.
Auto stocks traded lower on Tuesday, with Tata Motors PV coming under selling pressure. Weakness in auto stocks was also reflected in the sectoral index.
Banking stocks were among the key contributors to the market decline. Weakness in HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank added pressure on the Nifty, while Bajaj Finance also declined. Selling across banking and financial stocks weighed on market sentiment.
Tata Steel remained under pressure in the metal sector. Declines across several major stocks in the auto, banking and metal sectors kept the market under pressure.
While most sectors remained under pressure, pharma stocks witnessed buying interest. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Cipla were among the major gainers. Select IT stocks also attracted buying interest, with HCL Technologies trading higher.
NTPC and Tata Consumer also witnessed buying. However, gains in these select stocks were not enough to offset the broader market decline.
Most major sectoral indices remained under pressure on Tuesday. Nifty Pharma was the only major index to trade higher, gaining around 0.80% to reach 26,976.15.
Nifty IT declined 0.55%, Nifty FMCG fell 0.55%, Nifty Services declined 0.52% and Nifty MNC dropped 0.45%. Nifty Bank also traded around 0.41% lower.
Realty, infrastructure, energy and PSU bank-related indices also remained weak. The decline in early trade was therefore spread across several sectors rather than being limited to a single segment.
