With companies due to announce their Q1 earnings, investors turned cautious, leading to heavy selling in IT, oil and gas shares on Wednesday, thereby impacting the Indian benchmark indices.
Dragged by late selling, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell by 176.43 points or 0.21 per cent to settle at 83,536.08. During the day, it had lost 330.23 points or 0.39 per cent to 83,382.28.
The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 46.40 points or 0.18 per cent to end at 25,476.10.
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From the Sensex stack, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Bharat Electronics and ICICI Bank were among the laggards; while Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement and Power Grid were among the gainers.
Furthermore, with the US extending the suspension of its reciprocal tariffs to August 1, the world share market saw mixed trends.
In such a scenario, investor focus is shifting toward domestic earnings, remarked Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.
“Indian key indices remained largely range-bound, while domestic consumption themes continued to anchor investor sentiment. Despite global trade tensions and commodity tariffs, investor focus is increasingly shifting toward domestic earnings and structural growth drivers, including a likely sequential recovery in urban demand and a pickup in infrastructure-led spending,” he said.
Shares of mining giant Vedanta dropped 3.38 per cent to end at ₹440.80 on the BSE after US short seller Viceroy Research released a report charging billionaire Anil Agarwal's mining conglomerate to be "financially unsustainable" and posing a severe risk to creditors.
Viceroy said it was shorting the debt stack of Vedanta Resources, the parent company and majority owner of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd, as it released the 85-page report.
Vedanta, in response, called the report a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and baseless allegations to discredit the Group”.
Meanwhile, in Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei 225 index settled higher while Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended lower.
European markets were also trading higher, while the US markets ended on a flat note on Tuesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.51 per cent to USD 70.51 a barrel.
Exchange data also shared information on Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloading equities worth ₹26.12 crore on Tuesday.
Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), however, bought stocks worth ₹1,366.82 crore.
On Tuesday, the Sensex had risen by 270.01 points or 0.32 per cent to settle at 83,712.51. The Nifty climbed 61.20 points or 0.24 per cent to close at 25,522.50.
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