Shares fell nearly 1 per cent on Tuesday after Sun Pharmaceutical Industries slumped more than 15 per cent, its steepest daily decline, after the company warned that its sales in 2016 would be flat at best.

Today's decline is their biggest since July 8.

The benchmark BSE Sensex today fell 237.98 points to end at 28,182.14 The Nifty 50 lost 74 points to settle at 8,529.45.

Investors remained focussed on corporate earnings, while Infosys issued an upbeat outlook and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries warned on 2016 sales.

However, support came in from Infosys, which surged 11 per cent after the IT services company raised its FY16 dollar revenue growth outlook to 7.2-9.2 per cent from 6.2-8.2 per cent.

"Market will remain choppy till the time earnings are on," said Daljeet Kohli, head of research of IndiaNivesh Securities.

Infosys' bullish guidance propped up other IT stocks, as well. HCL Technologies Ltd rose 2.91 per cent, Wipro Ltd gained 1.6 per cent and Tech Mahindra Ltd increased 1.6 per cent.

Shares of HDFC Bank fell 1.52 per cent after the company reported a smaller-than-expected rise in first-quarter profit due to higher provisions for bad loans.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel shares rose 3.6 per cent after French telecoms group Orange SA said it has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Indian company to buy its subsidiaries in four African countries.

The CNX IT index was up 3.45 per cent at 11,655.45.

CNX Pharma index sank 7 per cent to 12,255.35.

HUL was down 2.34 per cent and Asian Paints was lower by 4.14 per cent.

Global markets

European shares edged higher in early trading on Tuesday, with encouraging earnings updates from several companies helping the market to hover just below a six-week high.

HK shares close higher: Hong Kong stocks rose on Tuesday, with investors encouraged by signs that mainland share markets are stabilising. The Hang Seng index rose 0.5 percent, to 25,536.43, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.8 per cent, to 11,871.54 points.

Nikkei near 4-week highs : Japan's Nikkei share average climbed to near four-week highs on Tuesday, supported by growing expectations for strong first-quarter earnings while gains in Chinese shares also underpinned sentiment. The Nikkei share average ended 0.9 per cent higher at 20,841.97, the highest closing level since June 24. The broader Topix gained 0.7 per cent to 1,673.88 and the JPX-Nikkei Index 400 advanced 0.6 per cent to 15,110.63.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.08 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade

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