Heavyweights pull down Nifty for third day; Sensex down 384 points

Midcap, smallcap indices log the biggest fall in nearly two months

The benchmark Nifty50 index fell for the third consecutive day on Tuesday, weighed down by losses in heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank — each declining by over a per cent and accounting for the bulk of the losses.

After hitting almost 22,500, the Nifty finished at 22,302.5, down 140 points, or 0.6 per cent. The BSE Sensex closed at 73,512, down 384 points or 0.5 per cent.

Deeper cuts were seen in the broader market, with the Nifty Midcap 100 finishing at 49,664, down nearly 2 per cent—its worst single-day fall since March 13.

Since hitting a record high of 51,115 on Thursday, the index has declined nearly 3 per cent. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 16,367, down 1.9 per cent, also the most since March 13, when the index plunged over 5 per cent.

Observers said the market scaled new highs last week, profit taking has emerged due to headwinds such as election uncertainty and the muddled outlook for rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.

“The market is witnessing resistance at higher levels, indicating cautiousness among the investors with the progress of both the result season and the Lok Sabha election. We expect this volatile move to continue till the exit poll. Hence, the market will remain in a broader range until clarity emerges,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The shares of realty and infra companies fell sharply due to concerns over the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) proposed norms for project financing.

Analysts said there are concerns that banks will scale back project finance credit if the new rules get implemented.

Among BSE sectoral indices, BSE Realty fell the most at 3.4 per cent, followed by BSE Utilities, which declined 2.9 per cent. JSW Energy (down 6.1 per cent), Prestige (5.8 per cent), and GMR Infra (5.2 per cent) were the biggest losers in the Nifty Midcap 100 index.

Barring information technology and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) all sectoral indices ended with losses. BSE FMCG index rose 1.8 per cent on upbeat corporate earnings by Marico and Godrej Consumer.

Among the Sensex components, Hindustan Unilever was the biggest gainer at 5.5 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra (2.4 per cent) and Nestle India (2.1 per cent). Power Grid and IndusInd Bank fell the most at over 3 per cent each.

The market breadth was weak on Tuesday, with 1,084 stocks advancing and 2,738 declining. The market cap of all BSE-listed stocks stood at Rs 398.4 trillion after dropping nearly Rs 10 trillion in three sessions. 

Foreign Portfolio Investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 3,669 core, while their domestic counterparts bought shares worth Rs 2,304 crore.