The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty fell for the eighth consecutive day on Tuesday, owing to selling in oil and gas, pharmaceutical, and banking stocks amid concerns about further interest rate hikes.
Mixed global cues, FII selling, and investor caution ahead of the release of key macroeconomic data all weighed on market sentiment.
After paring its early gains, the BSE Sensex fell 326.23 points, or 0.55 percent, to a four-month low of 58,962.12. It fell 492.38 points, or 0.83 percent to 58,795.97, during the day.
The NSE Nifty fell 88.75 points, or 0.51 percent, to 17,303.95, a more than four-month low, as 33 of its constituents fell.
The key indices have fallen for the eighth day in a row, the longest losing streak in more than three and a half years.
Reliance Industries fell the most by 2% among the Sensex constituents. Other major laggards included Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Titan, Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finance.
The top gainers were Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, and HDFC.
South Korea, Japan, and China finished higher in Asian markets, while Hong Kong finished lower.
European stock exchanges were mostly trading lower. On Monday, the US markets finished higher.
On Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation will release the second advance estimate of the GDP for 2022-23, as well as December quarter data.
“Due to the slowdown in the economy, which is fueled by high inflation and contractionary monetary policy, interest among international investors in the equity market is waning. Inflows are being diverted to safe assets, and corporate earnings growth is slowing, affecting stock market performance and necessitating a valuation downgrade.
“The double whammy for India is that it is expensive in comparison to other emerging markets, resulting in underperformance in the global market,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Brent crude rose 0.67 percent to USD 83 per barrel, the international oil benchmark.
According to exchange data, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,022.52 crore on Monday.
