Sensex falls 508 points, Nifty ends below 16,100; banking, IT stocks top losers

Benchmark indices fell for the second straight session on Tuesday, with Sensex and Nifty losing 1 per cent each amid a sell-off in global markets. Sensex fell 508.62 points to close at 53,886.61 and Nifty declined 157.70 points to settle at 16,058.30.

Infosys, Nestle India, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, M&M and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 2.33 per cent.

NTPC, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance were the only Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.87 per cent. Banking, auto and IT shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 384 points, 316 points and 360 points, respectively.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, "Equity markets after bouncing 7 per cent from its recent lows, have been lackluster from last two days and are witnessing selling at higher levels as investors await release of CPI inflation and IIP data in India on Tuesday and CPI data in US on Wednesday. The inflation data would provide direction to Central Banks next course of action. Apart from these, UK GDP and Manufacturing data will be released on Wednesday and China GDP data  on Friday. Secondly the earnings season has just started and market is in a wait-and-watch mode as to how it unravels going ahead. After weak results of TCS, investors are keenly awaiting HCL results which are due today. Other companies to release results this week are ACC, Oberoi realty, BEL, HDFC Bank, Tata ELXSI, LTTs, LTI, Angel One and Mindtree."

Share Market update: Sensex falls 500 pts, Nifty ends below 16,100; Infosys, Nestle top losers

Market breadth was negative with 1,472 stocks ending higher against 1,826 stocks falling on BSE. 169 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 251.92 lakh crore today against Rs 253.30 lakh crore in the previous session.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said, "Nifty has slipped below the previous session's low as bears remained at the helm. It has formed a small-bodied candle just below an important moving average, indicating a bearish day of mild significance. On the lower end, however, 16,000 is likely to act as crucial support. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 16,200, where meaningful call writing has happened."

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers on Monday as they sold shares worth Rs 170.51 crore, as per exchange data.

Also read: Adani Wilmar shares rise 10% in two volatile sessions

Meanwhile, rupee declined 15 paise to end at a new lifetime-low of 79.60 against the US dollar on Tuesday. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened weak at 79.55 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 79.53 and a low of 79.66.

On Monday, the Indian market closed lower amid high volatility in the last hour of trade. Benchmark indices fell after three days of gain on heavy selling in IT stocks and weak trends in the global markets. Sensex declined 86.61 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 54,395.23. Nifty slipped 4.60 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 16,216.

Global markets

In Asia, markets in Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong ended in the red. Stock markets in Europe were also trading lower in mid-session deals. The US markets had ended with losses on Monday.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 2.37 per cent to $104.6 per barrel.