By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -Indian shares fell on Tuesday, weighed down by auto and pharma stocks, while caution prevailed due to a largely tepid earnings season and persistent foreign selling.
The NSE Nifty 50 was down 0.55% to 24,207.38 points as of 10:08 a.m. IST, while BSE Sensex lost 0.48% to 79,620.97, after snapping a six-session losing streak on Monday.
The broader, more domestically-focused small- and mid-caps remained flat.
“While markets started the week on a positive note, caution prevails due to the upcoming U.S jobs data, uncertainty over the presidential election, a largely tepid domestic earnings season and heavy foreign outflows,” said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.
The Nifty 50 has dropped about 7% from a record high hit on Sept. 27, weighed by foreign outflows over the last 21 sessions.
Eight of the 13 major sectors logged losses, with auto stocks down 2% to be the top sectoral loser by percentage.
All the 15 stocks in the index declined. Mahindra & Mahindra fell 2% on multiple block deals at a discount to its last close.
Maruti Suzuki India also lost 2% ahead of its results later in the day.
Meanwhile, the pharma index lost 1.8%.
Torrent Pharma fell 3%, extending its post-results drop to 6%, while Cipla shed 3.3% ahead of its quarterly results later in the day.
Among individual stocks, telecom operator Bharti Airtel lost 2.7% after reporting a smaller-than-expected second quarter-profit on Monday.
State-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp lost 3% after posting a drop in September-quarter profit.
Non-bank lender Spandana Sphoorty lost 13% after reporting a loss for the September-quarter.
On the flip side, Federal Bank gained 6.1% after posting a rise in quarterly profit and was the top gainer in the Nifty bank index, which rose 0.2%.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Janane Venkatraman and Varun H K)
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