India’s equity benchmarks fell for a third consecutive session on Tuesday as concerns over foreign outflows and the rupee falling to a record low fuelled profit booking.
The Nifty fell 0.55% to 26,032.2 and Sensex lost 0.59% to 85,138.27. The indexes scaled record highs after 14 months last week, boosted by improving earnings, stable growth, and supportive monetary and fiscal policies.
Fifteen of the 16 major sectors declined. The broader small-caps and mid-caps fell 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively.
Foreign investors have sold India shares for three consecutive days, also pressuring the Indian rupee, which weakened to 90 per U.S. dollar on the inter-bank order matching system after the local spot market closed.
“We expect market to remain range bound due to lack of major triggers in the near term, while the wait for India-U.S. trade deal continues to get longer,” said Dharmesh Kant, head of equity research at Cholamandalam Securities.
Investors also await the Reserve Bank of India’s policy decision later on Friday, amid expectations robust economic growth might lead to interest rates being held.
On the day, high-weightage financials lost 0.9%, dragged by top private lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, which fell 1.2% each. Financials had climbed 2.8% over the last four weeks.
The shares were under pressure due to a likely decline in their weights in the Nifty bank index after National Stock Exchange of India capped the weightage of top three lenders at 43% in the index.
Among individual stocks, Bajaj Housing Finance tumbled more than 7% following several block deals at a discount to the market price. Parent Bajaj Finance said it will sell up to 2% stake in the housing finance company.
Sun Pharma Advanced Research soared 20% after a favourable summary judgment from a U.S. court regarding a priority review voucher associated with neonatal seizures treatment drug Sezaby, which will allow the firm to expedite regulatory review.
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