The Sensex and the Nifty fell over 0.9 per cent at the end of the session on Tuesday due to weakness in banking stocks as RBI tried to stabilise the rupee by curbing supply. Soft global cues also added to the weakness.
Participants resorted to heavy selling after the Reserve Bank of India raised the lending rates for banks. RBI had yesterday came out with a slew of measures, including hiking the lending rates for banks and sucking up Rs 12,000 crore to stem the rupee volatility.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 183.25 points (0.91 per cent) at 19,851.23 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 75.55 points (1.25 per cent) at 5,955.25.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty and banking indices succumbed to heavy selling pressure and were down 5.84 per cent and 4.83 per cent, respectively, followed by capital goods 2.23 per cent and metal 1.9 per cent.
On the other hand, FMCG, oil & gas and TECk indices found investors' support and were up 1.81 per cent, 0.74 per cent and 0.05 per cent, respectively.
Major losers were ICICI Bank (5.61%), SBI (4.57%), HDFC (3.88%), L&T (3.42%), and Jindal Steel (3.22%), while the major gainers were ITC (2.3%), Bharti Airtel (2.08 per cent), HUL (1.55%), ONGC (1.28%) and NTPC (1.09%).
The Nifty and the Sensex opened with a gap down on Tuesday. The Nifty opened at 5,931, down 100 points while the Sensex opened at 19,788, down 246 points.
“On the economic front, CPI and PPI data for UK, CPI and trade balance data in EU and CPI and industrial production data in US are some of the important economic numbers expected to be declared today.Most of the Asian indices were trading in the red in the opening hours of trade. The SGX Nifty was down by 93 points” said a report from Dalmia Securities.
European stocks fell from an almost six-week high as investors awaited data on German investor confidence and American industrial output.
Stoxx 50 was down 9.94 points or 0.37 per cent at 2,676.75, FTSE 100 was up 9.16 points or 0.14 per cent at 6,595.27 and DAX was down 14.85 points or 0.18 per cent at 8,219.96.
Asian stocks were up, led by gains in Japanese shares, as higher-than-estimated US earnings boosted the outlook for corporate profits.
Nikkei rose 92.87 points or 0.64 per cent to 14,599.10, Hang Seng was up 9.07 points or 0.04 per cent at 21,312.40 and S&P/ASX 200 was up 4.91 points or 0.1 per cent at 4,986.02.