Equity benchmarks pared early gains to settle on Tuesday, with the Sensex falling 236 points amid a sell-off in IT stocks and weak trends from global markets.

The BSE Sensex started higher but could not maintain the momentum and declined 236 points or 0.43% to settle at 54,052.61. During the day, it touched a low of 53,886.28 and a high of 54,524.37.

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The broader NSE Nifty fell 89.55 points or 0.55% to settle at 16,125.15. The broader indices ended in red with the BSE Midcap index falling 0.95%, while the Small cap index was down by 1.12%.

On the sectoral front, the only gaining sector on the BSE was Bankex up by 0.26%, while IT was down by 1.97%, TECK down by 1.81%, Utilities down by 1.76%, Power down by 1.70% and FMCG down by 1.47% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Major laggards from the Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra down by 4.37%, Asian Paints down by 2.96%, HCL Technologies down by 2.91%, Hindustan Unilever down by 2.88% and Infosys down by 2.14%.

Among the gainers were HDFC up by 1.45%, Dr Reddy’s Lab up by 1.45%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.43%, HDFC Bank up by 1.28% and Power Grid Corporation up by 1.18%.

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“Nifty faced selling pressure in the post noon session once again today. It opened flat and rose in the morning. It later came under selling pressure and closed lower for the second consecutive session,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

The rupee slipped by 4 paise to close at 77.59 against the US dollar.

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Asian markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo settled lower.

European stock exchanges were also trading lower in the afternoon session. US stock markets settled higher on Monday.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark dipped 0.46% to USD 112.9 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree and sold shares worth a net Rs 1,951.17 crore on Monday.