By Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee
(Reuters) -Indian shares fell on Wednesday, dragged down by high weightage financials and as drugmaker Cipla extended its post-results losses.
The NSE Nifty 50 shed 0.51% to 24,340.85 points, while the BSE Sensex lost 0.53% to 79,942.18.
Nine of the 13 major sectors logged losses.
Heavyweight financials, which gained about 2.6% over the last two sessions, lost 1.3% on the day, leading sectoral losses.
The Nifty 50 has lost 5.7% in October so far, on track for its worst monthly performance since March 2020, when the lockdown announced in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic hit equity markets across the world.
Moderation in September-quarter earnings so far and sustained foreign outflows for 22 straight sessions have triggered the drop, said Abhishek Goenka, founder and chief executive of IFA Global.
Cipla fell 4% on the day, taking its post-results drop to about 6% over two sessions.
Several brokerages cut their earnings estimates for the drugmaker, citing likely delay in launch of drugs and muted growth in its key market U.S.
Maruti Suzuki India, which fell 3.8% in the last session due to a revenue slowdown and a profit drop, rose 2% on the day.
India’s top carmaker by sales expects a 14% jump in its festive season sales, and brokerages such as Kotak Institutional Equities said valuations are attractive after the 15% drop this month.
India’s broader, more domestically-focussed small- and mid-caps rose 1% and 0.2%, respectively. The indexes have fallen 4.1% and 6.3% this month.
“Historically, quality small- and mid-caps often recover substantially after corrections, which has brought investor interest in the segment,” said G Chokkalingam, managing director of research at Equinomics Research.
Consumer goods maker Marico rose 3.5% after its second-quarter profit beat estimates.
Engineering firm Honeywell Automation fell 7.7% after a drop in quarterly profit, hurt by slowing demand.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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