Thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower.Domestic equity benchmarks declined on Tuesday amid rising geo-political concerns.
The SP BSE Sensex fell as much as 499 points and NSE Nifty index dropped below 10,750 before Sensex closing 240 points lower at 35,974 and Nifty falling 45 points to shut shop at 10,835.
India carried out "non-military, pre-emptive air strikes" across the Line of Control early this morning to target the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was planning more attacks in the country after Pulwama, the government said on Tuesday."Geopolitical tensions have affected the markets More downside can be expected.
We need to see how things pan out at the border," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital Markets, told TheIndianSubcontinent.Thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the SP BSE Realty Index's 1.63 per cent decline.
On the other hand, SP BSE Oil Gas Index was top gainer, up 0.18 per cent.Indiabulls Housing Finance was the top loser from the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 3.49 per cent to Rs 655.10.
HCL Technologies, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Infosys and State Bank of India were also among the losers.On the flipside, Zee Entertainment was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 6 per cent to close at Rs 471.90 on the back of heavy volumes.
As many as 8.28 lakh shares changed hands in today's trade compared with an average of 4.47 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks.
Tata Motors, Indian Oil, Coal India, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finserv and Ultratech Cement were also among the gainers.Selling pressure was broad based as the SP BSE MidCap Index fell 0.27 per cent and the SP BSE SmallCap Index dropped 0.50 per cent.The overall market breadth was negative as close to 1,600 shares declined while 944 advanced on the BSE.