The benchmark indices-Sensex and Nifty50 were down, as suggested by SGX Nifty. On Tuesday, at 9:18 AM, the Sensex was down 444 points lower at 49,058 and the Nifty slumped 152 points down to 14,790.
In the previous session, Sensex ended 295.94 points or 0.60 percent higher at 49,502.41, and Nifty jumped 119.20 points or 0.80 percent to 14,942.35.
Kotak Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding over 2 percent, followed by HDFC, TCS, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Tech Mahindra, M&M and Maruti. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, NTPC, ONGC, ITC, Reliance Industries and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 583.69 crore on Monday, according to provisional exchange data.
According to Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities, domestic equities do not look to be positive as of now on weak global cues.
"US indices, especially S&P 500 and Nasdaq, fell sharply mainly on account of heavy selling pressure in high profile technology and growth stocks. While US equities have been gaining momentum consistently well supported by robust March quarter corporate earnings and loose monetary policy stance of the Federal Reserve, the bond market has been broadly muted in the last one month. This started weighing on investors'' sentiments as any surge in bond yield will make valuations of technology or growth stocks quite expensive, he noted, PTI report said.
Economic growth may slip to 8.2 percent if the second COVID wave peaks in end of June, CRISIL warned on Monday, maintaining its baseline estimate of 11 percent uptick in activity. The agency made it clear that the risks to its 11 percent growth forecast are "firmly tilted downwards", and presented two likely scenarios. If the second wave peaks in May-end, the GDP expansion will come at 9.8 percent, and can go down to 8.2 percent if the peaking happens in June-end, it warned
According to the Ministry of Health, COVID-19 infections and deaths in India were at record daily highs on Monday with 3.66 lakh new infections and 3,754 deaths.
Key companies announcing their quarterly results today includes Granules India Ltd, Godrej Consumer Products, Siemens Ltd, Linde India Ltd, Aarti Industries Ltd etc. 14,500 acts as an important support, said Mohit Nigam, President, PMS, Hem Securities.
Fuel prices up
Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday hit record highs across the country after rates were increased for the second consecutive day. As compared to Monday, petrol has become costlier by 27 paise while the price of diesel has increased by 30 paise.
After today’s hike, petrol prices in Delhi climbed to Rs 91.80, while diesel price rose to Rs 82.36 per litre. Meanwhile, petrol price is all set to touch Rs 100-mark in the financial capital. In Mumbai, the petrol price was hiked to Rs 98.12 a litre on Monday from Rs 97.86, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 89.48 from Rs 89.17.
Asian markets decline
Asian markets are trading lower following a sell-off in tech stocks that weighed down major US Indexes overnight. Asian shares declined as Wall Street declined on fears over inflation leading to investors to cut back on their exposure to growth-focused stocks.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.7 percent. Australian stocks was down 1.2 percent and Tokyo's Nikkei 2.63 percent.
(With PTI inputs)
