Sensex, Nifty Fall As NTPC, Infosys, ONGC Drag

Share indices in the Asia-Pacific region fell during early trade on Wednesday, following overnight losses on Wall Street driven by index-heavy tech giant companies.

The Nikkei 225 was trading 0.24% down at 40,003, and the S&P ASX 200 was 0.29% down at 7,702.10 as of 7:16 a.m.

U.S. stocks came under pressure as a trio of tech heavyweights slid, with traders wading through mixed economic data in the run-up to Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress, according to Bloomberg.

The S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq composite fell by 1.02% and 1.65%, respectively, as of Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average settled 1.04% lower.

Brent crude was trading 0.92% lower at $82.04 a barrel. Gold was lower by 0.06% at $2,126.80 an ounce.

The GIFT Nifty was trading flat at 22,427 as of 8:11 a.m.

India’s benchmark stock indices ended lower on Tuesday, snapping four days of gains, weighed by losses in Infosys Ltd. and Bajaj Finance Ltd.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 49.3 points, or 0.22%, lower at 22,356.3, and the S&P BSE Sensex declined 195.16 points, or 0.26%, to end at 73,677.13.

Overseas investors became net buyers of Indian equities on Tuesday. Foreign portfolio investors bought stocks worth Rs 574 crore; domestic institutional investors remained net buyers for the third day and mopped up equities worth Rs 1,835 crore, the NSE data showed.

The Indian rupee closed flat at 82.89 against the U.S. dollar.