Nine of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined. High
weightage financials was little changed while IT
stocks fell over 1%.
HCLTech and Infosys lost nearly 2%
each, topping the list of Nifty 50 losers. HCLTech will report
its quarterly earnings on Thursday.
"Investors have been nervous after the dismal fourth-quarter performance of IT companies which have reported their numbers so far," said Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president (research) at Mehta Equities.
The Nifty 50 has lost over 1% so far this week, logging
losses in each of the previous two sessions. On Monday, the
benchmark formed a bearish engulfing pattern on the daily
charts, suggesting a bearish bias for the near term.
"The index has got an important near-term support at
17,500-17,550 zone and resistance at 17,800 levels," said
Vaishali Parekh, vice president for technical research at
Prabhudas Lilladher.
Markets are likely to stay volatile and choppy, with earnings the only major trigger until the U.S. Federal Reserve rate decision on May 3, two analysts said.
Among individual stocks, Piramal Pharma Ltd climbed over 6% after the U.S. drug regulator closed an inspection of its Sellersville manufacturing facility issuing an Establishment Inspection Report. TVS Motors rose over 2% after brokerage CLSA predicted the two-wheeler maker to see margin expansion in the near term and export recovery through the next two fiscal years. TVS Motors' growth levers are intact, CLSA said, maintaining "sell" on the stock citing stretched valuations.
($1 = 82.0780 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Varun H K)
