By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian blue-chip shares fell on Monday, dragged by information technology (IT) and financial stocks, while investors awaited domestic retail inflation data for October.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.29% at 19,469.90 as of 10:08 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.33% to 65,046.04.
Benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex hit three-week highs, adding more than 0.5% each, in the special one-hour “muhurat” trading session on Sunday, led by gains in energy and information technology stocks.
High weigtage IT and financials lost over 0.5% each. The two indexes gained 0.44% and 0.72%, respectively, on Sunday’s special session.
Analysts said the drop in Indian equities is a technical pull-back after the previous session’s rise.
“The momentum remains intact for Indian markets – earnings have been along expected lines, macroeconomic data look promising and retail participation continues to rise,” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.
India’s retail inflation data for October is due after market hours later in the day. A Reuters poll has predicted the reading at a four-month low of 4.80%.
There are several buying opportunities at current valuations after the consolidation over the last few weeks due to global factors like elevated U.S. Treasury yields and the Middle East conflict, Dasgupta added.
The Nifty 50 lost nearly 3% in October, its worst month in 2023, before adding 2% in November so far.
Among individual stocks, Eicher Motors jumped 2.5% and topped the Nifty 50 gainers after posting record second-quarter profit on strong Royal Enfield sales, post market hours on Friday. The two-wheeler maker’s stock rose 1.09% on Sunday’s special session.
Coal India rose 1.5% after adding 2.6% on Sunday on topping September-quarter profit view on higher power demand.
BSE and Sun TV Network gained over 2.5% each on strong quarterly results.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; editing by Eileen Soreng and Sohini Goswami)
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