The frontline equity indices halted their two-day winning run as profit-booking in all but the financial sector dragged them in the negative territory on Tuesday. Moreover, a fall in the monthly GST collection below Rs 1-trillion, for the first time in eight months, weighed on investor sentiment.
Add to it, the 10-year government bond yield rose 1.6 per cent on Tuesday amid concerns that high crude oil prices may keep inflationary pressures mounted in the economy. Brent Crude Futures were hovering above $77 per barrel-mark after OPEC and its allies decided to call-off their meeting indefinitely.
Effectively, the 30-share BSE barometer dropped 268 points from the record peak of 53,129, touched earlier today, to settle at 52,861 levels, down 19 points or 0.04 per cent.
Only 11 of the 30 constituents on the index managed to end in the green, led by UltraTech Cement (up 3 per cent), HDFC Bank, Bajaj twins, Kotak Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Tata Steel.
On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 declined 16 points, or 0.10 per cent, to end at 15,818 levels.
Tata Motors, down 8.5 per cent, ended as the top laggard on the index after its UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) said it expects an operating cash outflow of about 1 billion euro, with negative Ebit margin in the second quarter ended September 2021 (Q2FY21), due to the supply constraints.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index settled 0.12 per cent higher while the BSE SmallCap index closed 0.26 per cent lower.
In terms of sectoral participation, the Nifty Bank was the top performing index, up 0.9 per cent, trailed by the Nifty Financial Services index, up 0.8 per cent. On the flipside, the Nifty Auto was the biggest loser, down 1.8 per cent.
Global markets
European stocks slipped on Tuesday after three sessions of gains as gloomy trading in Asia and an unexpected drop in German industrial orders offset a jump in commodity stocks. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.1 per cent.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei added 0.16 per cent and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.36 per cent. Australia's ASX200, however, fell 0.7 per cent.
On Wall Street, futures of all three main US stock indices were down up to 0.06 per cent, suggesting a flat start later in the day.
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