By Rama Venkat
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares ended lower for a third straight session on Tuesday, hit by sharp losses in metal and energy stocks, while investors stayed on the edge over rate hike and economic slowdown worries.
The NSE Nifty 50 index closed down 0.38% at 16,240.05, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.19% to 54,364.85.
Nifty’s metal and energy sub-indexes were among the top drags, plunging 5.2% and 4%, respectively.
Coal India, Tata Steel and Oil and Natural Gas Corp were among the worst performers on Nifty 50, falling between 6% and 7%.
The Indian rupee was hovering near record lows at 77.37 against the dollar.
“Global sentiment is negative because of geopolitical uncertainty, rise in rates, so it is like a storm which has come together but investors will have to weather it as market will remain extremely volatile for the next few days,” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive officer at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.
Nifty’s volatility index, which indicates traders’ expectations about market instability over the next 30 days, was up 1.23% at 22.3025.
The Nifty’s midcap and smallcap indexes also mirrored their larger peers, falling 1.87% and 2.24%, respectively.
Among individual stocks, Asian Paints closed 2.7% higher, after it reported a 20.6% jump in March-quarter consolidated sales revenue.
A Reuters poll found India’s retail inflation likely surged to an 18-month high in April, largely driven by rising fuel and food prices and staying well above the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance limit for a fourth consecutive month.
The consumer price inflation data is due to be released at 1200 GMT on Thursday.
India’s benchmark indexes last week posted their biggest drop since November, marking their fourth straight weekly loss, dented by a surprise interest-rate hike by the country’s central bank, foreign fund outflows and mixed corporate results.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Rashmi Aich)
