By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks fell in early trade on Tuesday, pressured by losses in financials and IT stocks amid regional market weakness and broad-based profit booking.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.88% to 24,780.95, while the BSE Sensex traded 0.95% lower at 81,409.67 as of 10:40 a.m. IST.
Investors are likely pulling back after the Nifty closed above the 25,000 mark on Monday, a trend seen in the last couple of weeks, analysts noted.
“We are again seeing profit booking at 25,000 levels as there are not enough positive triggers to pull the Nifty above these levels as of now,” said Dharmesh Kant, head of equity research at Cholamandalam Securities.
All the 13 major sectors logged losses on the day. Heavyweight financials and information technology stocks lost about 1% each.
The broader, small-caps and mid-caps traded 0.1% and 0.3% lower, respectively.
“We see limited upsides for markets from here as the Nifty 50 valuations are no longer inexpensive at 20x 1-year forward price-to-earnings ratio,” said Surendra Goyal and Vijit Jain of Citi Research.
“Consumption and growth recovery is key to generating positive market returns hereon,” they said.
Meanwhile, MSCI Asia ex-Japan fell 0.5%, after being largely steady on Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump delayed imposing tariffs on goods from the European Union. [MKTS/GLOB]
Markets in the U.S. were closed on Monday for a holiday.
Investors are awaiting the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s May policy meeting and domestic GDP data for the fourth quarter this week, and the Reserve Bank of India’s rate decision next week for fresh market triggers, analysts said.
Among individual stocks, InterGlobe Aviation shed about 3% as co-founder Rakesh Gangwal sold shares worth $1.36 billion.
FirsCry parent Brainbees Solutions slipped more than 4% after posting higher losses for the fourth quarter versus last year.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Varun H K)
