New Delhi: Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Tuesday started trade on a negative note ahead of the gross domestic product (GDP) numbers for the quarter ended March 31 and amid steep rise in crude oil rates.
At 10 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 366 points to 55,558, while the broader NSE Nifty was at 16,545, down 92 points.
On the BSE, Sun Pharma, HDFC, Infosys, HCL Tech, Titan, Kotak Bank, Wipro, TCS, and Tech M were the top losers, dropping 1-2 per cent. HUL, Cipla, and Tata Consumer were some of the additional losers on the Nifty.
PowerGrid, Tata Steel, ONGC, NTPC, and auto stocks – M&M, Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, Tata Motors, meanwhile, were the top gainers on the two benchmarks.
In the broader market, midcap and smallcap shares were trading slightly positive as Nifty midcap 100 rose 0.17 per cent and smallcap edged 0.10 per cent higher.
On NSE, 10 out of the 15 sector gauges were trading in the red. Sectorwise, sub-indexes Nifty IT and Nifty Financial Services were the worst hit, falling as much as 1.15 per cent and 0.85 per cent, respectively.
The overall market breadth was weak as 1,303 shares were advancing while 1,130 were declining on BSE.
In the previous session on Monday, the Sensex rallied 1,041 points (1.90 per cent) to settle at 55,925.74, while the Nifty jumped 308 points (1.89 per cent) to close at 16,661.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.91 per cent to $122.78 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 502.08 crore on Monday, as per stock exchange data.
“The dominant factor determining the market direction, going forward, would be the trend in the US market, which, in turn, would be determined by the inflation in the US and the Fed’s response to it. A major headwind for the Indian economy and markets is crude spiking above $120 on EU sanctions on Russian oil,” said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, told the PTI.