Indian shares erase gains as drugmakers extend fall

Global equities reversed an early gain following weak crude prices.

india trader
Traders work at a brokerage in Mumbai, India. Reuters

Indian shares erased most of their gains to close little changed on Tuesday, as a rally in technology and software exporters was tempered by a selloff in healthcare and metal shares.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended up 0.10 percent at 31,747 after rising as high as 31,885 earlier in the session. The broader NSE Nifty gained 0.15 percent to end at 9,786.

Global equities reversed an early gain following weak crude prices.

Sentiment were also jittery as investors awaited testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen for clues on when the central bank would tighten U.S. monetary policy.

Yellen will submit Federal Reserve's semi-annual Monetary Policy Report to Congress on Wednesday.

Back home, earnings season is about to kick-start with Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, country's two biggest software exporters, scheduled to report on July 13 and 14 followed by UltraTech Cement on July 18 and Bajaj Auto on July 20.

Top losers included Bharti Airtel down 2.4 percent, Coal India falls 1.6 percent while ONGC declined 1.6 percent.

Drugmakers such as Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Labs amd Lupin fell between 1 percent to 2 percent.

Among the gainers, Tata Motors, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, NTPC and Tata Consultancy Services rose between 1.4 percent to 2.4 percent.

Videocon Industries shares hit 5 percent upper circuit for an 11th consecutive session.

Market breadth was in the favour of losers, with about 2 stocks declining to every 1 stock that advanced.

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