By The Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Tuesday, with the BSE benchmark down 69.86 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 76,765.92.
The Nifty 50 fell 10.60 points, also down 0.04 per cent, to close at 23,985.35.
Bank Nifty recorded a steeper fall, losing 331.60 points, or 0.58 per cent, to settle at 56,755.60.
IT stocks bucked the trend, with the Nifty IT index climbing 3.32 per cent, led by TCS and Tech Mahindra.
Hindustan Unilever tumbled nearly 7 per cent after its quarterly earnings missed market expectations, making it the day’s worst performer.
Coal India also fell more than 4 per cent on weaker-than-expected quarterly profit, citing lower production volumes and higher operating costs, with Bharat Electronics also among the losers.
In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap index rose 0.08 per cent while the Nifty Smallcap index fell 0.22 per cent.
The session followed a sharp rally on Monday, when the indices had snapped a five-day losing streak amid falling crude oil prices.
Foreign institutional investors have been closely watched in recent sessions, with their buying or selling activity often cited as a factor behind the market’s day-to-day direction.
Hindustan Unilever’s fall came after the company reported quarterly numbers that fell short of analyst estimates, with investors reacting sharply to the miss given the stock’s weight in the consumer goods space within the benchmark indices.
The rally in IT stocks was broad-based, with several other companies in the sector also posting gains during the session, as investors responded positively to the outlook shared by some of the larger firms during recent earnings updates.
Coal India’s decline reflected wider concerns among investors about production volumes at state-run mining companies, a theme that has recurred in past quarters and continues to weigh on sentiment around the stock.
Analysts tracking the session noted that the muted overall movement in the headline indices masked sharper swings at the sector and stock level, with earnings reactions driving much of Tuesday’s price action.
(Image: Niyantha Shekhar (CC BY 2.0))
