Indian shares fall for second straight day as IT stocks drag

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BENGALURU — Indian shares settled lower for a second straight session on Tuesday, pressured by losses in IT heavyweights, while sugar companies plunged on media reports that the world’s biggest producer planned to curb sugar exports.

The NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.55% to 16,125.15 at close, and the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.43% at 54,052.61, tracking weakness in the broader market.

Sugar manufacturers including Dhampur Sugar Mills, Balrampur Chini, Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries and Shree Renuka Sugars dropped between 5% and 7.7%.

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India planned to restrict sugar exports for the first time in six years to prevent a surge in domestic prices, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Domestic equities have fallen more than 5% so far this month as global equities have been under pressure from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, prospects of bigger interest rate hikes by central banks to contain surging inflation, and the supply chain crisis that has been worsened by China’s zero-COVID policy.

“Markets are in a consolidation mode…some of the overstretched valuations have normalized, so we do not expect much downside from current levels. However, inflation headwinds can play spoilsport for any market rally,” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive officer at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.

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On Tuesday, Nifty IT fell 1.88% and was the top loser among other sub-indexes, with Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro falling over 1% each.

Among gainers, shares of SoftBank Group-backed Delhivery closed 10% higher in market debut.

Bank of India settled 1.8% higher, having surged as much as 4.5% in the session after it reported an over two-fold increase in net profit for the March quarter.

Zomato also surged 13.9% after the food delivery firm late on Monday reported a 75% jump in quarterly revenue as new customers propelled a surge in order volumes. (Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V, Subhranshu Sahu and Shinjini Ganguli)