Sensex falls on profit-booking; Infosys drags

MUMBAI: Indian shares fell on Tuesday, retreating from record highs hit in the previous session, as recent outperformers such as State Bank of India fell, while Infosys Ltd dropped after going ex-dividend.

Both indexes have been scaling new peaks after the Indian government said last week it would inject $32.4 billion to recapitalise banks and spend $82.2 billion to build roads.

The market movement on Tuesday mirrored the sluggishness in Asian stocks following overnight weakness on Wall Street.

"These two events (recapitalisation and infrastructure investment project) took market really high. So, some kind of consolidation is always expected," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president, research, SMC Global Securities.

The broader NSE Nifty was down 0.21 percent at10,342.35 as of 0609 GMT, while the benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.1 percent lower at 33,234.76.

Infosys fell 2.4 percent and was the biggest drag on the Nifty.

Recent outperformers fell, with State Bank of India losing 2 percent, its third session of fall in seven. Punjab National Bank lost 2.5 percent, its second session of loss in seven.

Among gainers, Axis Bank surged as much as 5.2 percent after The Economic Times reported that Bain Capital was in advanced talks to invest $750 million-$1 billion in the company.