Indian shares reversed gains on Monday on volatility due to extended foreign investor selling and higher oil prices, which offset better-than-expected earnings from the country's largest private lender HDFC Bank.
The Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) was down 0.44% at 17,876.50 as of 2:11 p.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.37% to 60,038.37. Both benchmarks had risen over 0.5% during the session.
Barring information technology (.NIFTYIT) and public sector banks (.NIFTYPSU), all the other 11 major sectoral indexes declined, with heavyweight financials (.NIFTYFIN) falling 0.8% and metals (.NIFTYMET) losing 1.4%.
The reversal in equities during the session almost mirrored the downturn in financials (.NIFTYFIN), which gave away intraday gains of 0.8% in a volatile session.
"The volatility in markets will continue in the near term, due to extended selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPI)," said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research (retail) at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
They also flagged a moderation in domestic investors' buying as another reason for volatility.
