By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) – India’s equity benchmark indexes inched lower on Tuesday, dragged by financials as investors booked profits after recent gains, while weak earnings from state-run Bank of Baroda also weighed.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.33% to 24,379.6 and the BSE Sensex lost 0.19% to 80,641.07.
The broader, more domestically focussed small-caps and mid-caps lost about 2.5% and 2.3%, respectively.
The benchmarks jumped about 10% in March and April, driven by financials on the back of better-than-expected earnings and inflows from foreign investors.
Heavyweight financials, which had soared over 13% in the last two months, dropped 0.75% on the day, leading losses on the benchmarks.
Consolidation and profit-taking cannot be ruled out after the recent rally, especially with developments regarding tariffs and geopolitical tensions still on the radar, said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking.
Ather Energy fell 5.8% on its trading debut on concerns over high valuation and competitive intensity in the electric two-wheeler industry.
Bank of Baroda slumped 10.1%, its worst session in 11 months, triggering a 4.8% sell-off in public sector banks, after it posted lower quarterly net interest income.
Analysts said state-owned lenders also fell due to reports of delay in divestment plans, scrapping of the JSW Steel-Bhushan Steel deal.
Barring auto, all the other major sectors logged losses.
Mahindra & Mahindra rose 1.6%, leading the gains among auto stocks, as brokerages see re-rating prospects for the shares, driven by anticipated margin expansion and growth in the sport utility vehicle market.
The pharma index lost 1.1% after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reduce the time it takes to approve pharmaceutical plants in the U.S. to encourage domestic manufacturing.
Trump also said that sector-specific tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are likely to be announced within the next two weeks.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
