Sensex, Nifty Edge Lower; Banking, Auto Shares Underperform

The Indian equity benchmarks edged lower on Tuesday dragged by losses in banking, financial services, auto and metal shares amid weak trend in other Asian markets. The Sensex declined as much as 167 points to hit low of 55,415.63 and Nifty 50 index slipped below its important psychological level of 16,550. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, Infosys and Maruti Suzuki were among the top drags on the Sensex.

As of 9:22 am, the Sensex was down 12 points at 55,570 and Nifty 50 index declined 24 points to 16,538.

Asian markets were trading on a weak note as Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.64 per cent, Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.5 per cent and Taiwan Weighted fell 0.3 per cent.

Overnight, investors managed to shrug off new concerns about China's economy, the coronavirus Delta variant and turmoil in Afghanistan to largely drive stocks higher while also boosting some more defensive investments.

Wall Street rebounded after early losses on Monday to see two of its three major indices close higher, with the S&P 500 posting a new record high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq was the only index to end the day lower.

Back home, eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Private Bank index's 0.7 per cent decline.