Sensex, Nifty Off Day's Lows; Banking Shares Worst Hit

Shares fell on Tuesday as mixed corporate earnings and a global selloff sparked by a surge in Delta variant infections weighed on sentiment.

By 1:30 pm, the NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.62 per cent at 15,654.05 and the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.48 per cent at 52,301.85

The Nifty Smallcap100 and Midcap100 indexes fell as much as 1.9 per cent each, their sharpest intraday fall in a month.

Shares of Adani Group companies were down between 0.4 per cent and five per cent on news that India's securities regulator and customs authorities were investigating some of the group companies for non-compliance of rules.

India's HDFC Bank fell as much two per cent, the biggest loser on the Nifty Bank Index and was set for a second session of losses after missing expectations for quarterly profit. The overall bank index was down 1.8 per cent.

Shares of IT services company HCL Technologies fell 2.1 per cent after its quarterly revenues missed analysts' expectations, while cement company ACC Ltd rose 3.4 per cent over a two-fold jump in consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended June 2021.

Investors are eyeing results from two Nifty-50 companies, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance, later in the day.

Asian stocks were down on Tuesday, as the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus raised fears that further lockdowns could upend global economic recovery.

Stocks on Wall Street fell as much as two per cent on Monday, with the Dow posting its worst day in nine months as COVID-19 deaths increased in the United States.

Analysts expect a mixed bag of reactions through the day as investors weigh concerns over inflation and rising coronavirus cases.

"There are two silver linings to the market, though. First, oil prices have started cooling off after the oil producing nations' cartel OPEC+ agreed to boost supply, and second, unemployment data has been reported to be on the lower side," said Anita Gandhi, wholetime director at Arihant Capital Markets, Mumbai.