The Indian equity benchmarks witnessed continued selling pressure on Tuesday, with SENSEX declining 103.95 points to 76,624.42 in early trade and NIFTY dropping 40.10 points to 23,908.80, as reported by The Hindu. According to latest reports, the broader market underperformed with BSE 150 MidCap Index tumbling 0.75% and BSE 250 SmallCap Index losing 0.83%. The market breadth showed mixed signals with 1,609 shares rising and 2,536 shares falling on BSE, while India VIX rose 5.93% to 13.83, indicating heightened volatility expectations. The decline mirrored losses across Asian markets, with South Korea's KOSPI, Japan's Nikkei 225 and Shanghai's SSE Composite index quoted higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index traded lower. The decline was attributed to fresh foreign fund outflows and decline in blue-chip IT stock, with Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloading equities worth ₹1,350.10 crore on Monday.
The Nifty PSU Bank index fell 1.35% to 8,519.50, with major banks experiencing significant declines including Canara Bank (down 2.07%), Indian Bank (down 1.98%), Bank of Baroda (down 1.61%), Bank of India (down 1.61%), UCO Bank (down 1.47%), Punjab & Sind Bank (down 1.02%), Punjab National Bank (down 0.87%), State Bank of India (down 0.87%) and Indian Overseas Bank (down 0.84%). The sector decline contributed to the broader market weakness, with selling pressure intensifying in financial stocks amid ongoing market volatility and geopolitical uncertainties.
From the SENSEX pack, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever and Eternal were among the major laggards, as reported by The Hindu. However, Maruti, Axis Bank, Power Grid and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers, providing some support to the broader market. The IT sector weakness was attributed to fresh foreign fund outflows and decline in blue-chip IT stock, with investors closely monitoring the upcoming U.S.-Iran negotiations in Doha. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, traded 0.56% lower at $72.74 per barrel, providing some relief to market sentiment.
India's forex reserves increased by $963 million to $672.587 billion during the week ended June 19, according to the RBI. However, foreign currency assets decreased by $3.072 billion to $541.217 billion, while gold reserves increased by $4.110 billion to $107.930 billion. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down $52 million to $18.647 billion, and India's reserve position with the IMF slipped $22 million to $4.793 billion. In corporate developments, Strides Pharma Science added 1.83% after announcing a strategic investment by a consortium led by Ascent Capital in its wholly owned subsidiary Pivot Path. Om Power Transmission shed 0.33% despite securing a ₹18.50 crore contract from SAEL Industries for transmission line work.
Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth ₹383.76 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth ₹5,747.75 crore, as per NSE data reported by The Economic Times. However, FIIs have so far this year sold shares worth ₹2,77,954 crore, data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed. This contrasts with the significant domestic institutional investor buying activity, highlighting the continued foreign investor selling pressure in Indian markets. The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper declined 0.36% to 6.826 compared with previous session close of 6.851.
