Indian shares muted as pullback in financials offsets broader gains
Indian benchmark indexes closed flat on Tuesday as profit booking in financials offset gains driven by optimism around the U.S.-China trade talks and continued policy support from the Reserve Bank of India.
The Nifty 50 closed little changed at 25,104.25, while the Sensex ended fell a marginal 0.06% to end at 82,391.72.
Both indexes rose about 0.4% in early trade before losing steam.
Valuations are stretched after the recent rally, making time correction and bouts of profit-taking likely in the near term, said Amit Jain, co-founder of Ashika Global Family Office.
Both the benchmark indexes gained about 2.3% in the last four sessions, with Nifty logging its highest closing levels since October 14 on Monday, buoyed by the RBI's policy support.
Seven of the 13 sub-sectors logged losses on the day. High-weightage financials and banks lost about 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.
Index heavyweights HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank dropped 0.7% and 0.8%, contributing to the drag.
Indian equity mutual fund inflows slump to 13-month low in May despite market gains
Analysts attributed the fall to profit-booking – rate sensitive sectors such as financials gained 2.8% in the last four sessions and the bank index rose 2.2%, both hitting a record high on Monday.
The broader, the more domestically focussed small-caps and mid-caps were also muted on the day.
Other Asian markets advanced, aided by expectations of progress on day two of trade talks between U.S. and China.
IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., rose 1.7% on optimism over the trade negotiations.
Among individual stocks, Grasim added 3.7% after Morgan Stanley raised its target price to a Street-high 3,500 rupees and made the stock its top pick.
Coforge rose about 2% after JPMorgan reiterated the company as its top IT pick, citing strong growth prospects in fiscal 2026.
Tata Power rose 1.7% after its solar manufacturing arm crossed 4 GigaWatt of solar module production at its Tamil Nadu facility.
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