By Bharath Rajeswaran and Shubham Batra
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks reversed gains on Tuesday, as an expiry-driven pullback in financials overpowered a broad-based rally, while investors looked forward to a key Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting later this week.
The NSE Nifty 50 fell 0.24% to 24,563.65 and the BSE Sensex lost 0.27% to 80,147.47 as of 2:21 p.m. IST.
Both the benchmarks rose about 0.5% each during the session before paring gains in afternoon trade.
The slide stems from expiry-driven unwinding in financials, which dominate the Nifty, two traders said.
The NSE’s weekly derivatives expiries shifted to Tuesday from Thursday on September 2, adding extra pressure and volatility, according to traders.
Financials, which added about 0.35% in morning trade, subsequently shed 0.7%.
While the benchmarks gave up their gains, expectations of GST rate cuts lifted consumer stocks 0.8% higher.
Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, Dabur India and Emami rose between 1% and 4%.
The GST council, scheduled to meet on September 3-4, is planning to lower the consumption tax by at least 10 percentage points on nearly 175 products ranging from shampoos and hybrid cars to consumer electronics.
Nine of the 16 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps and mid-caps rose 0.3% each.
India’s biggest energy firm, Reliance Industries, rose 1%, leading the energy sub-index about 1% higher.
Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock, saying that the company stands to benefit most from China’s “anti-involution” push.
Beijing’s drive to curb excess capacity and price wars in energy and solar supply chains support Reliance’s ramp-up of fully integrated energy and solar supply chains.
Separately, sugar stocks such as Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engineering, Shree Renuka and Dalmia Bharat Sugar gained after the government allowed unrestricted ethanol production from sugarcane byproducts from 2025-26.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
