Mumbai: Market benchmarks closed deep in the red on Tuesday, mirroring a negative trend overseas as tightening monetary policy globally and escalation of the war in Ukraine continued to weigh on sentiment.
Sliding for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex slumped 843.79 points or 1.46 per cent to settle at 57,147.32.
The broader NSE Nifty tumbled 257.45 points or 1.49 per cent to end at 16,983.55.
IndusInd Bank was the biggest laggard among the Sensex constituents, dropping 3.70 per cent, followed by Nestle India, Tata Steel, Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s, and HUL.
Only two counters managed to close with gains — Axis Bank and Asian Paints, rising up to 1.15 per cent.
“Investors are becoming risk-averse due to rising geopolitical turmoil as well as worries about the global economic slump. Investors’ caution ahead of the announcement of inflation data prevented a better-than-expected start to IT earnings from improving market mood.
“However, as compared to global counterparts, domestic selling is not as aggressive since FII selling is primarily absorbed by DIIs,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
The country’s largest IT services exporter TCS on Monday reported an 8.4 per cent growth in its September quarter net profit at Rs 10,431 crore, while revenues jumped 18 per cent to Rs 55,309 crore.
“Indian markets are caught in the web of global turmoil. While domestic investors are fighting hard to come out of this web, they have been unable to do so amid high volatility with Nifty falling below its key psychological levels of 17,000.
“Markets may remain under pressure in the near term, as global factors continue to outweigh. Further, macro data like CPI, IIP and WPI, along with US Fed meeting minutes to be released over the next few days would be closely tracked by investors for further cues on market direction,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 1.61 per cent and the smallcap index fell by 1.47 per cent.
All BSE sectoral indices ended in the negative territory, with realty falling 3.07 per cent, telecommunication 2.45 per cent, IT 2.12 per cent, teck 2.11 per cent, consumer durables 2.01 per cent, and commodities 1.90 per cent.
Global markets extended their losses as investors offloaded riskier assets amid rising interest rates and geopolitical volatility.
Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended lower, while Shanghai settled in the green.
Stock exchanges in Europe were trading in the negative territory in mid-session deals. The US markets had ended lower on Monday.
Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude futures declined 2.59 per cent to USD 93.70 per barrel.
The rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled 5 paise higher at 82.35 (provisional) against the US dollar on Tuesday.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 4,612.67 crore on Tuesday, according to data available with BSE.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Mansoor Hameed | 
