After a flat-to-negative opening on Thursday, benchmarks quickened the speed of retreat which began a day earlier marking an end to a three-day winning streak.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped almost 223 points or 0.46 percent at 49,263 levels while broader NSE Nifty index slid almost 64 points or 0.44 percent at 14,501 levels in the first hour of the trade.
With BSE IT, Teck, and Metal sectoral indices falling between 0.9-2.22 percent on the bourses, IT, telecom and media stocks saw heavy declines.
After the IT giants reported better than anticipated earnings results for the third quarter (Q3) ended December 31, 2020, investors booked gains on Infosys and Wipro counters. Infosys traded at Rs 1,349.50, down on the BSE by 2.75% compared to the previous one.
The 30-share BSE index finished nearly 25 points or 0.05 percent lower at 49,492 levels on Tuesday after gyrating above 721 points during the day. A unprecedented intra-day high of 49,795.19 was reached.
To its new closing high of 14,564.85, the wider NSE Nifty crept up only 2 points, or 0.01 percent. During the day, the index reached a lifetime high of 14,653.35.
Benchmarks with the midcap benchmark down 0.7 per cent is underperformed by the wider markets.
Bank Nifty reached an all-time high, returning almost 400 points from the lowest levels hit during the day.
Nifty Fin Services and Nifty Pharma led the losses among the industries, while the finance, automobile, FMCG and IT indices were in the green for the day.
On a provisional basis, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) purchased Indian stocks worth Rs 1,879 crore in the cash segment and bought Rs 3,674 crore in the Futures & Options (F&O) market. In index futures, they reduced the net duration to 73 percent from 76 percent on the previous day. In the currency market, domestic institutions have sold stocks worth Rs 2,370 crore.
As S&P 500 and Nasdaq acquired 0.2 percent and 0.4 percent while Dow finished flat, the US market stayed sluggish overnight. On the heels of a surge in Intel stock, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq earned.
After reaching a high of 1.18 percent, US treasury yields eased to 1.09 percent a day as interest rates dropped. The fall in rates came as two primary officials of the US Federal Reserve noted the monetary policy will remain easy for the foreseeable future. Fed Vice Chairman said the central bank won’t raise rates until inflation reaches 2%.
