Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged losses with high weightage financials, bank, private bank and public sector banks falling between 0.4% and 0.8%.
The more domestically-focused broader indexes were mixed. The smallcaps rose 0.2%, while midcaps mirrored the benchmarks, fell 0.4%.
The slide in domestic equities comes amid rising concerns over China’s economy after the country slipped into deflation for the first time since February 2021. Asian markets were subdued.
Meanwhile, Moody’s downgrade of several small to mid-sized U.S. banks also reignited fears over the health of the financial system in the world’s largest economy.
Analysts expected stock-specific action to continue in domestic equities as the June-quarter earnings season approaches its conclusion.
“Despite the global concerns, investors will take the double-digit earnings growth in this quarter as a positive,” said Gaurav Dua, senior vice president and head of capital market strategy at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
“There are certain opportunities which get overvalued to sell, but we believe every correction of a few 100 points is an opportunity to buy.”
Among individual stocks, Adani Wilmar fell as much as 4.50% to a near two-month low after a Bloomberg report said that Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm of the Adani conglomerate, sought to sell a stake in the fast-moving consumer goods firm.
Real estate developer Brigade Enterprises lost as much as 6.08%, dragging the realty index down 1%, after posting a slump in June-quarter profit on weak sales.