Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices faced heavy volatility in early trade on Tuesday and were trading lower as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's interest rate decision later this week. Foreign fund outflows and weak trends in the US equities also dented sentiments in markets during early deals. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 72.61 points to reach 62,714.86 in the initial trade. The NSE Nifty dipped by 12.15 points to reach 18,581.70.
The Sensex climbed 240.36 points or 0.38 percent to settle at 62,787.47 on Monday. The Nifty advanced 59.75 points or 0.32 percent to end at 18,593.85. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 700.98 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
From the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, Maruti and Axis Bank were among the major gainers.
Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.
In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading in the green. The US markets ended lower on Monday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.20 percent to USD 76.54 a barrel.
"Markets could retreat in early Tuesday trades owing to overnight weakness in key US indices, while denting sentiments a bit would be FII selling that continued for the second consecutive day. In a bullish Monday's session at Dalal Street, FIIs sold local shares worth Rs 701 crore," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said in his pre-opening market comment. "Since the MPC June meeting starts today, there will be some focus on rate sensitives. The RBI commentary will be closely watched," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
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