The benchmark Sensex was down by 45.72 points or 0.13% to close at 34,915.8.

Indian equities witnessed their best quarter since 2009 after Tuesday’s market close, on the last day of June. During the day’s session, the indices gave up their gains in the last hour of trade, tracking global cues. Uncertainties around the lockdown and rising Covid-19 cases also dampened investor mood. The benchmark Sensex was down by 45.72 points or 0.13% to close at 34,915.8. The 50-share index Nifty was down by 10.30 points or 0.1% to close at 10,302.1.

In June, both Sensex and Nifty have rallied by 7.69% and 7.84%, in dollar terms, respectively, which is part of the best-ever quarter in 11 years. This makes them the best-performing benchmark indices in Asia for the month.

Sanjeev Hota, head of research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said, “The last time the markets saw such a decline was during 2009 following which we witnessed a great quarter. This time it is the same too, it simply means that the markets have bounced back from the lows. We have moved up quite a bit from the bottom of 7,600 in March but the rally cannot be one way till the time we see concrete signs of improvement on the earnings and macro front. So, investors should be ready for some healthy correction going ahead.”

Nifty touched a low point of 10,267.35. This is after the European markets started showing weakness in trade with the stock market in the UK down by 0.4%. On the other hand, the stock markets in France and Germany were up between 0.08% to 0.3% at the time of press. Deepak Jasani, head- retail research, HDFC Securities, said, “European stocks fluctuated in early trade on Tuesday, with banks and energy firms leading the losses at the end of a strong quarter, while UK markets took a hit from a worse-than-expected GDP reading. The UK economy also suffered its sharpest slump in more than 40 years as gross domestic product fell 2.2% between January and March.”

The Dow Jones Mini futures were flat, up by 26.5 points at the time of press. Asian markets extended the gains of the previous trading session of the US markets, which were up as investors continued to focus on economies reopening in spite of the rising Covid toll in the country.

Foreign portfolio investors have continued to remain buyers in the Indian equity markets pumping as much as $2.73 billion, the highest since the equity outflow in March where they pulled out $8.3 billion from the markets. They remained sellers throughout April and were buyers in May because of the block deal that took place in marquee companies such as HUL. The volumes in the futures and options segment on Tuesday stood at Rs 10.79 lakh crore against the six-month average of Rs 13.9 lakh crore.

The biggest gainers on Nifty were Shree Cement, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, Nestle India and Britannia Industries — up by 3.12%, 2.66%, 2.59%, 2.54%, and 2.41%. The biggest losers on Nifty were BPCL, PowerGrid Corp, Sun Pharmaceuticals, GAIL, and IOC — down by 2.5%, 1.94%, 1.89%, 1.88%, and 1.72%.

In the broader market, the Nifty Smallcap and Nifty Midcap were down by 0.21% and 0.61%. Sectorally, the biggest loser was Nifty PSU Bank, followed by Nifty Media, Nifty Pharma, and Nifty IT.