Mumbai: Indian shares fell on Tuesday and were set to snap four consecutive sessions of gains as the firing of a missile over Japan by North Korea rattled investors, while the expiry of local derivatives contracts this week also hit sentiment. In a sharp escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula, North Korea fired a missile early on Tuesday that flew over Japan and landed in Pacific waters about 1,180 kilometres (735 miles) off the northern region of Hokkaido.

Asian share markets tumbled, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.6%. The missile firing added to the unease in Indian markets that were already cautious ahead of the monthly derivatives contracts expiry on Thursday. “Early negativity from Asian markets over North Korea followed through to the domestic market,” said Anand James, chief market strategist with Geojit Financial Services.

“Investors are also booking profits after Nifty tested 9,900 levels on Monday while there is some volatility ahead of the expiry,” he added. Power producer NTPC was the biggest loser on both the indexes. The stock declined over 4% after the Indian government said it would sell a 5% stake in the company with an option to sell 5% more through a two-day stock market auction in a potential $2.2 billion deal. Meanwhile, shares in Infosys Ltd fell 1% on profit-booking after having risen nearly 8% in the last four sessions. The stock had gained more than 3% in the previous session, with co-founder Nandan Nilekani returning as chairman after the shock resignation of chief executive Vishal Sikka last week. Shares in ACC Ltd, Bank of Baroda and Tata Power Co dropped after their exclusion from the NSE index.

Meanwhile, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd surged 7.7% on reports that renewable energy firm Greenko is in talks to buy the company’s electricity business in Mumbai.

■1.31pm: BSE Sensex trades lower by 343 points, or 1.08%, to 31,408, while the Nifty 50 falls 107 points, or 1.08%, to 9,806.

■ 11.56am: NTPC, HDFC and Bharti Airtel are the major losers with losses to the tune of 3.14%, 1.97% and 1.37%, respectively.

■ 11.02am: BSE Sensex trades lower by 251 points, or 0.79%, to 31,500, while the Nifty 50 falls 76 points, or 0.76%, to 9,837.

■ 9.36am: BSE Sensex trades lower by 183 points, or 0.58%, to 31,568, while the Nifty 50 fell 53 points, or 0.53%, to 9,860.

■ 9.30am: NTPC Ltd fell 3.4% to Rs167.50 after the government said it will sell a 5% stake in top power producer NTPC Ltd through a stock market auction, with a greenshoe option to sell another 5% in a deal that could raise up to $2.2 billion.

■ 9.25am: RBL Bank Ltd rose 5% to Rs525 after a huge block deal. Around 5% stake or 18.90 million shares of the bank changed hands in two block deals, according to Bloomberg report.

■ 9.22am: Reliance Infrastructure rose 4.1% to Rs503.10 after ET reported that Greenko is in talks with the company to acquire its Mumbai electricity business for enterprise value of $1.75-$2 billion.

■ 9.20am: Thyrocare Technologies Ltd rose 2.4% to Rs688.50 after a huge block deal on Monday. Reliance Mutual Fund bought 1.13m shares; Birla Sun Life MF bought 1m shares; Norwest Venture sold 5m shares, according to BSE data.

■ 9.15am: The rupee opened at 63.94 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 63.94 a dollar, down 0.05% from its Monday’s close of 63.91.

■ 9.10am: The 10-year bond yield was at 6.572%, a level last seen on 6 June, compared to its previous close of 6.568%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

■ 9.00am: Asian currencies were trading mixed. South Korean won was down 0.53%, Philippines peso 0.23%, Taiwan dollar 0.14% and Singapore dollar fell 0.11%. However, Japanese yen was up 0.44%, China offshore 0.14% and China renminbi 0.1%.

Source:livemint.com