India's benchmark indices continued to trade lower through midday on Tuesday, tracing losses in shares of Infosys Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and Larsen & Toubro Ltd. As of 12:26 p.m., the NSE Nifty 50 was trading 118.90 points or 0.53% lower at 22,153.60 and the S&P BSE Sensex was 486.01 points or 0.66% down at 72,913.77.
Intraday, Nifty fell 0.76% to 22,103.85, and Sensex declined 0.80% to 72,814.15.
Tensions in West Asia heightened after Israel's military officials warned of response to Iran's attack, Bloomberg reported. This dented investors' risk appetite and prompted them to move away from risk assets like emerging market equities, which exerted pressure on Indian benchmarks like its Asian peers.
The market, which opened with a decline, is facing sustained selling pressure at higher levels. The index has formed a bearish candle on the daily chart and a bearish continuation pattern on the intraday chart, indicating potential further weakness, according to Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities Ltd.
Shares of Eicher Motors Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Oil and Natural Gas Corp. and Titan Co. limited the loss in the Nifty.
Infosys, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries Ltd. and State Bank of India weighed the index.
On the NSE, six sectors advanced, and six declined. The NSE Nifty IT fell over 1% to become the top loser, while NSE Nifty Media rose the most.
The broader markets outperformed benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Midcap rose 0.27%, and the S&P BSE Smallcap rose 0.76%.
On BSE, 14 out of 20 sectors advanced and six declined. The S&P BSE IT was the worst performing sector, while the S&P BSE Oil and Gas was the best performer.
The market breadth was skewed in the favour of the buyers as 2,347 stocks advanced, 1,271 stocks declined and 141 remained unchanged on BSE.
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