India shares fell on Tuesday, retreating from 14-month highs hit in the previous session, as Reliance Industries and other recent outperformers fell to profit-booking, while Tata Consultancy Services fell on concerns earnings were slowing in the current quarter.
Caution also prevailed ahead of a meeting by the Trinamool Congress party later in the day to review its support for India's ruling coalition government, after having strongly opposed recent measures including the hike in diesel prices. That is setting up some worries India could backtrack from its initiatives, even after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Monday the government has no intention of doing so.
Any hints of a reversal would put at risk a strong rally in domestic stocks, which helped by the Federal Reserve's new asset purchase programme, has attracted 51.1 billion rupees ($949.37 million) in net foreign inflows in the last two sessions, or about half of what India received for all of August.
"Looking at overall scenario, things are looking positive for markets in the medium term. But definitely some consolidation is expected in near term as markets had run up pretty sharply," said Vaibhav Sanghavi, Director at Ambit Capital. India's benchmark BSE index fell 0.25 percent, or 46.30 points, to end at 18,496.01. The 50-share NSE index declined 0.18 percent, or 9.95 points, to end at 5,600.05 points. Financial markets are closed on Wednesday for a religious holiday.
Reliance Industries fell 2.1 percent after its share price on Monday rose above the maximum buy-back price of 870 rupees per share for the first time since the offering was announced on January 20 Retailers retreated after a strong recent rally sparked by the government's action to open up the multi-brand retail sector to direct foreign investment. Pantaloon Retail fell 4.2 percent after gaining 27.34 percent over the previous two sessions. ICICI Bank shares ended 1.1 percent lower after rising 10.55 percent in previous two sessions.
Among other decliners, Tata Consultancy Services fell 3.2 percent on concerns about its July-September earnings following an analyst briefing by CFO S. Mahalingam on Monday. Tata Motors shares fell 1.6 percent after reporting on Monday lower-than-expected August JLR vehicle sales.
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