Markets fall in early trade on profit-taking, foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Tuesday, halting their three days of rally, on profit-taking amid weak trends from the US markets and foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 222.02 points to 73,792.53. The NSE Nifty dipped 47.65 points to 22,414.35.

Later, the benchmark indices faced volatile trends and were trading with marginal gains.

From the Sensex basket, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, and Asian Paints were the major laggards.

IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Titan were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul traded lower while Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong quoted in the positive territory.

Wall Street ended mostly lower on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 522.30 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.48 per cent to USD 87.84 a barrel.

"Profit-taking may come into play due to excessive optimism, subdued US market close in overnight trades, and FIIs turning net sellers in Monday's positive session," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said in his pre-opening market comment.

Extending its winning momentum to the third day in a row on Monday, the BSE benchmark jumped 363.20 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at 74,014.55. During the day, it zoomed 603.27 points or 0.81 per cent to hit the record intra-day high of 74,254.62.

The NSE Nifty climbed 135.10 points or 0.61 per cent to 22,462. During the day, it jumped 203.05 points or 0.90 per cent to hit the all-time peak of 22,529.95.