Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Tuesday’s trading session on lower note with a half-percent cut amid heavy selling in most of sectors’ stocks. After making positive start, soon index slipped into red terrain, amid foreign fund outflows. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,168.75 crore on May 6. Also, geopolitical tensions weighed on markets as Israel commenced its planned military offensive in Rafah hours after it rejected Hamas' proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. Traders overlooked India Ratings and Research’s report in which it has revised upward the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth estimate for FY25 to 7.1 per cent from 6.5 per cent earlier.
In afternoon session, index extended its losses to trade near day’s low point, as sentiments were down beat with a private report stating that beyond geopolitical situations, the growing global concern surrounding environmental issues and clean energy pose certain threats to Indian companies planning to invest abroad. The street took a note of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das’ statement that India is working on making the e-rupee or central bank digital currency (CBDC) transferable in the offline mode along with introducing the programmability feature to help its financial inclusion goals. Finally, index ended in negative terrain with losses of 140.20 points.