After edging up slightly at the start, the Indian stock market retreated into negative territory on Tuesday, and after staying sideways for about three hours, staged a modest recovery but plunged again on selling pressure and eventually ended the session notably lower.
Reports about the Indian Army conducting punitive artillery assaults to destroy Pakistan military posts across the Line of Control near Rajouri raised geopolitical worries and prompted investors to stay cautious.
Weakness in Asian markets following a suspected terrorist attack in northern England and concerns about the ongoing political turmoil in the U.S. where there are fresh accusations against President Donald Trump that said the White House sought to interfere in the Russia probe also weighed on sentiment.
The BSE benchmark Sensex ended down 205.72 points or 0.67% at 30,365.25, after declining to a low of 30,316.92 intraday. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange, which declined to 9370.00, ended at 9386.15, recording a loss of 52.10 points or 0.55%.
In the forex market, the rupee was trading at 64.67 against the U.S. dollar around late afternoon, down 12 paise from its previous close of 64.55.
Healthcare, realty, power, oil, capital goods, telecom and consumer durables stocks declined sharply. FMCG stocks, which had a good outing on Monday, eased on profit taking. Bank stocks saw some heavy selling but managed to regain most of the lost ground as the session progressed. Information technology, automobile and metal stocks ended on a mixed note.
Several stocks from midcap and smallcap segments declined sharply. The market breadth was very weak. Out of 2878 stocks traded on BSE, 2115 stocks declined. 605 stocks advanced and 158 stocks ended flat.
Adani Ports ended more than 6% down. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 4.3%) declined sharply after the company's US subsidiary Taro Pharmaceuticals reported weak results. GAIL India (down 2.7%) ended sharply lower on weak results.
Cipla ended nearly 5% down. Bajaj Auto, Coal India, State Bank of India, ONGC, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ITC, Lupin and NTPC lost 1% - 3%.
Aurobindo Pharma ended more than 6% down. Bharti Infratel, Tata Power, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Ambuja Cements, Grasim Industries and Tata Motors DVR ended with sharp to moderate losses.
Maruti Suzuki gained about 2.5%. Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.7% and Eicher Motors gained nearly 1.5%. Wipro, HCL Technologies, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, Hindustan Unilever, Hero Motocorp, Bosch and IndusInd Bank gained 0.3% - 1%.
CCL Products, SRF, Banco Products, GATI, Den Networks and Sharda Cropchem declined sharply on weak results.
