A global sell-off coupled with profit booking and a significant outflow of foreign funds weighed on key Indian stock indices on Tuesday.Also, analysts pointed out the absence of any major liquidity infusion measure by the Central Bank after its Board meeting on Monday as another reason for the decline in equities.Besides, investors were cautious as the second phase of assembly elections with 72 seats was held in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday.However, low crude oil prices and a stronger rupee prevented a steeper decline in stocks.The S&P BSE Sensex fell 300 points while the broader NSE Nifty50 settled below the 10,700-mark.On the intra-day basis, the Indian stock markets opened on a negative note in line with their Asian peers, which were impacted after an overnight slump on the Wall Street led by technology stocks.The downward spiral dragged the S&P BSE Sensex to settle down 300.37 points or 0.84 per cent lower at 35,474.51 points, from its previous close of 35,774.88 points.The NSE Nifty50 lost 107.20 points or 1 per cent to finish at 10,656.20 points.The overall market breadth was negative and the broad-market indices like the NSE Mid-cap and NSE Small-cap indices closed 1.02 per cent and 0.92 per cent lower respectively.
All the 19 sectors on the BSE came under heavy selling pressure. The metal counters fell over 2 per cent, while healthcare, IT and TECK (technology, entertainment and media) declined over 1 per cent each. "Global and domestic uncertainty kept the bulls at bay and injected a note of caution into the markets," said Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. Deepak Jasani, Retail Research Head, HDFC Securities, said: "It seems that Tuesday's decline has not damaged the near-term uptrend of the market and one may expect the Nifty to bounce back in the next couple of sessions. Immediate support to be watched is at 10,620-10,580 levels. Immediate resistance is placed at 10,723 level."The Indian rupee strengthened for the second day in a row against the US dollar. It closed 19 paise higher at Rs 71.45, from the previous close of 71.64.Provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold stocks worth Rs 753.17 crore on Tuesday while the domestic institutional investors sold scrips worth Rs 44.06 crore.Top gainers on the Sensex were IndusInd Bank, up 1.34 per cent at Rs 1,558.35; Adani Ports, up 1.24 per cent at Rs 354.15; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 0.30 per cent at Rs 782.70; and HDFC Bank, up 0.06 per cent at Rs 2,015.25.The laggards were Yes Bank, down 6.10 per cent at Rs 192.55; Tata Steel, down 3.21 per cent at Rs 563.50; Vedanta, down 2.89 per cent at Rs 205.10; Wipro, down 2.59 per cent at Rs 321.70, and NTPC, down 2.42 per cent at Rs 149.35 per share.