Indian equity benchmarks fell on Tuesday amid selling pressure in financial, IT and FMCG shares, with the Sensex losing almost 600 points in two straight session. Globally, concerns about steep hikes in COVID-era interest rates and their impact on economic growth kept investors on the back foot, denting the sentiment on Dalal Street.

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NSE

Both headline indices fell around one percent during the session before settling near their lowest levels of the day.

The Sensex shed as much as 570.3 points to 53,825 in intraday trade and the Nifty50 slid to as low as 16,031.2, down 184.9 points from its previous close.

A total of 44 stocks in the 50-scrip basket finished the day lower. Eicher Motors, Hindalco, Infosys, Bharat Petroleum, Grasim, Tata Motors, Nestle, HCL Tech and Britannia — falling around 2-3 percent — were the top laggards.

On the other hand, NTPC, Coal India, Shree Cement and Bharti Airtel — rising between 0.2 percent and 1.4 percent — were among the top blue-chip gainers.

Infosys, ICICI Bank and the HDFC twins contributed more than 250 points to the fall in Sensex.

HCL Tech finished the day down 1.6 percent after hitting a 52-week low during the session. The Noida-based IT company will release its financial results for the April-June period later in the day.

Analysts globally awaited a key reading from the world's largest economy due later in the day for more clarity on the pace of policy tightening by the Fed in the coming months.

"Fears of interest rate hikes are back in focus in the global markets... Inflationary pressure along with strong US jobs data would keep the Fed on the path of aggressive rate hikes... Demand concerns amid a rebound in coronavirus cases in China compelled crude oil to trade lower," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Overall market breadth turned in favour of the bears in the second half of the session, as 1,472 stocks rose and 1,826 fell on BSE at the end of the day.

The rupee hit a record closing low against the US dollar.

Global markets

European markets began the day in the red amid persistent concerns about an energy supply crunch and rising COVID-19 cases in China that exacerbated fears of a global recession. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell as much as 0.9 percent in early hours.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.6 percent at the last count, suggesting a weak start ahead on Wall Street.

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