Markets make losses amid volatility, Sensex loses 631 points

Indian stock indices gave up their accumulated gains from the previous session and opened with sizable losses on Tuesday. Banking stocks as well as heavyweights such as Reliance Industries dragged down the indices during the session.

BSE Sensex dropped 631 points and settled at 60,115.48 whereas Nifty 50 went down 211 points to 17,914.15 on Tuesday.

Among the gainers on BSE, Chennai Petroleum, Max Financial Services, Tata Motors and Marksans were the most active on BSE. Adani Enterprise, IDBI Bank, HCC and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards on Tuesday.

Among the Nifty sectoral indices, Nifty IT, Nifty bank, Nifty PSU bank, and Nifty financial services declined the most.

The broader markets also await US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech at a conference later in the day. He may shed light on the future course of monetary policy action in the US. Investors will also keep an eye on the latest US inflation, scheduled to be released this week.

TCS, among the Nifty 50 companies, was the top loser this morning. It declined over 2 per cent. Analysts attribute the decline to "less-than-estimated earnings" during the October-December quarter.

The IT services firm on Monday reported 10.98 per cent surge in its consolidated net profit to Rs 10,883 crore for the quarter that ended December 2022 (Q3FY23). The company had posted a profit of Rs 9,806 crore in the year-ago period.

At the interbank forex market, the rupee finished at 82.36 against the US dollar. The rupee recorded the biggest 1-day upside since November 11 against the greenback. Last week, on Friday, the rupee stood at 82.72 per dollar.

"After the positive market news of last Friday the market would be keenly watching the Powell Speech today and the CPI data to be released tomorrow. Powell is unlikely to depart from the Fed's hawkish stance but if the CPI data of Wednesday confirms the declining trend in inflation, the market will get ahead of the Fed and will start pricing in a terminal rate below 5 per cent and possible rate cuts by end 2023," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"On the other hand, if inflation continues to remain high, there can be a sell-off in the market discounting higher rates and a hard landing for the US economy," Vijayakumar said, recommending investors may wait for these crucial inputs before taking a call on near-term market trends.

( With inputs from ANI )

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