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The Sensex and the Nifty edged down in a choppy trade on Tuesday as investors pared positions on risk aversion after a steep fall in Chinese equities, and on worries at home that the monsoon may be deficient.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 46.73 points or 0.17 per cent at 27,831.54 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 10.75 points or 0.13 per cent at 8,466.55.
Among BSE sectoral indices, IT index was the star-performer and was up 1.61 per cent, followed by consumer durables 1.15 per cent, TECk 0.96 per cent and capital goods 0.88 per cent. On the other hand, metal index succumbed to heavy selling pressure and was down 1.92 per cent, followed by healthcare 0.57 per cent, infrastructure 0.47 per cent and PSU 0.47 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Tata Steel (+2.07%), Maruti (+2.03%), Infosys (+1.92%), TCS (+1.86%) and SBIN (+1.76%), while the major losers were GAIL (-4.43%), Coal India (-4.2%), Cipla (-2.87%), VEDL (-2.28%) and Lupin (-2.13%).
European shares opened slightly lower on Tuesday, after a weak trading session in Asia and relatively thin mid-August trading volumes offset a fairly buoyant set of corporate earnings updates.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.3 per cent at 0712 GMT, with a dip in oil prices and weak metals prices hitting mining stocks.
Asian shares fell to a two-year low on worries that cooling demand in China will weigh on the trade-reliant region. The Shanghai Composite Index closed down 6.1 per cent at 3,749.12 in its biggest daily decline since July 27, snapping a three-day winning streak.
India's monsoon deficit has widened to 10 per cent as a strengthening El Nino weather pattern trimmed rainfall, the weather department said on Monday, raising fears of the first drought in six years.
Meanwhile, ratings agency Moody's Investors Service cut its forecast for India's economic growth to around 7 per cent this year from 7.5 per cent because of lower-than-expected rainfall in the monsoon season.
"People are not keeping positions at higher levels because of monsoon uncertainty, they are booking profits," said Alex Mathews, head of research at Geojit BNP Paribas.
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