By Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares fell on Tuesday, dragged by high-weightage financials and information technology stocks and as consolidation continued in the holiday-truncated last week of the financial year.
The Nifty 50 index lost 0.42% to 22,004.70 but ended above 22,000 for the fourteenth session out of 17 this month. The BSE Sensex shed 0.50% to close at 72,470.30. The markets were shut on Monday and will be closed on Friday for a public holidays.
“We are seeing some uncertainty. With the financial year 2024 ending this week and ahead of elections, Indian markets are slightly jittery,” said Abhishek Goenka, founder and chief executive of IFA Global.
“We expect Indian markets to move sideways till elections. If the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party wins the elections, as expected, we may see a further rally in equities.”
The country goes to polls in seven phases, starting from April 19.
Eight of the 13 major sectors logged losses, with financials, banks IT dropping between 0.35% and 0.7%.
Index heavyweights Reliance and HDFC Bank lost about 1% each, respectively.
Small- and mid-caps rose 0.41% and 1.05%, respectively, but are still down 5.37% and 1.09% in March, while the Nifty has gained 0.1%.
“Pockets in broader markets which have gone up on no fundamentals, with no rhyme or reason, will get normalised, depending on March quarter results,” said Raghvendra Nath, managing director of LadderUp Wealth Management.
Adani Ports gained about 2% on plans to buy a 95% stake in a port for an equity value of 13.49 billion rupees. It was the third-biggest gainer on the Nifty.
Among the top three losers were Power Grid, which fell 2.1%, and Eicher Motors, which shed about 2%, to snap a three-session and four-session winning streak, respectively.
Maruti Suzuki dropped 0.71%, easing off record-high levels, after recalling more than 16,000 cars due to a defect in their fuel pump motors.
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio D’Souza)
