Markets halt four-day rally amid weak global trends

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty fell in early trade on Tuesday, halting their four-day rally amid an overall weak trend in the global markets.

The 30-share BSE benchmark declined 205.04 points to 57,910.46 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty dipped 71.85 points to 17,268.20.

Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, HDFC and Axis Bank were the biggest laggards in early trade.

However, Asian Paints, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

In Asia, markets in Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading lower.

The US markets had ended lower on Monday.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 545.25 points or 0.95 per cent to settle at 58,115.50 on Monday. The Nifty advanced 181.80 points or 1.06 per cent to



17,340.05.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.73 per cent to USD 99.25 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 2,320.61 crore on Monday, as per exchange data.

"Markets are likely to take a breather and see a gap down opening, tracking weakness in other Asian indices and overnight fall in US gauges.

"However, there is a possibility that the market could edge higher as the trading progresses on some positive catalysts like the US treasury yields falling in the overnight trades, robust July GST collections, and foreign investors continuing to take exposure to local equities over the past few weeks," Prashanth Tapse - Research Analyst, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd had said in his pre-opening market comment.