Sensex falls 236 points, Nifty ends below 16,150; TechM, HUL top losers

Indian market erased early morning gains on Tuesday amid a sell-off in IT stocks and weak cues from global markets. The 30-share BSE benchmark opened higher but could not carry forward the momentum. Sensex rose 121 points to 54,409 and Nifty gained 24 points to 16,238 in early trade.

Later, the 30-stock index declined 236 points or 0.43 per cent to end at 54,052.61. During the day, the 30 stock index hit a low of 53,886.28 and a high of 54,524.37. Nifty fell 89.55 points or 0.55 per cent to close at 16,125.15.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities said, "The cautious optimism seen in early trades failed to generate healthy gains as weakness in other Asian peers and pessimism in European gauges triggered last hour selling. Investors are waiting for the minutes of the US FOMC meeting, which will provide cues on the central bank's rate-hike direction going ahead. Also, there is a lot of skepticism amongst the investors over interest rate hikes in the near term and its impact on growth going ahead."

Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Steel, Infosys, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finserv were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 3.92 percent in today's trade.

Dr Reddy's, HDFC, PowerGrid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Nestle were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.80 percent today.

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"Nifty faced selling pressure in the post noon session once again today. It opened flat and rose in the morning. It later came under selling pressure and closed lower for the second consecutive session," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

On Monday, Sensex closed 37.78 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 54,288.61. Nifty declined 51.45 points or 0.32 per cent to close at 16,214.70.

Tata Steel was the top Sensex loser, slipping 12.53 per cent, followed by UltraTech Cement, ITC, Power Grid, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies, and Reliance Industries.

M&M, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paints, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top sectoral gainers, rising up to 4.14 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,951.17 crore on Monday, as per NSE data.

Global markets

Asian markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo ended lower. Exchanges in Europe were also trading lower in the afternoon trade. Stock markets in the US had ended higher on Monday. International oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.46 per cent to $112.9 per barrel.