Mumbai, May 20 (PTI) Falling for the third day in a row, benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled 1 per cent on Tuesday dragged down by profit taking in blue-chips such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank.

Retreating from early highs, the 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 872.98 points or 1.06 per cent to settle at 81,186.44 as 27 of its constituents closed lower and three with gains. During the day, it dropped 905.72 points or 1.10 per cent to 81,153.70 as profit taking emerged in auto, financials and defence stocks.

The broader NSE Nifty tumbled 261.55 points or 1.05 per cent to 24,683.90.

Analysts said investors opted for profit-booking as they awaited more clarity on the India-US trade agreement.

From Sensex firms, Eternal dropped the most by 4.10 per cent. Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, Nestle, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Asian Paints were also among the laggards. HDFC Bank dropped by 1.26 per cent and index major Reliance Industries by 1.13 per cent.

Tata Steel, Infosys and ITC were the gainers.

“With the lack of major positive triggers and prevailing uncertainty over US fiscal stability, investors opted for profit-booking and adopted a cautious stance. Selling pressure was widespread as participants awaited more clarity on the India-US trade agreement,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

“Given the current premium valuations and delays in the trade deal, we foresee a phase of short-term consolidation, which may lead FIIs to scale back their positions in the domestic market,” he added.

The BSE midcap gauge tanked 1.65 per cent and smallcap index dropped 0.96 per cent.

All sectoral indices ended lower. Auto declined 2.13 per cent, consumer discretionary (1.81 per cent), utilities (1.64 per cent), services (1.53 per cent), industrials (1.36 per cent) and telecommunication (1.35 per cent).

As many as 2,531 stocks declined while 1,438 advanced and 135 remained unchanged on the BSE.

“While markets had witnessed a pullback rally over the past week due to Indo-Pak ceasefire, US-China heading towards a tariff understanding and strong FII fund inflows, the mood is reversing back to caution with a negative bias. The current situation shows that markets will see bouts of optimism followed by a volatile phase as global economic uncertainty remains a key challenge for investors,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Among Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled in the positive territory while South Korea’s Kospi ended marginally lower.

Markets in Europe were trading in the green. US markets ended higher on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.11 per cent to USD 65.47 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 525.95 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

On Monday, the 30-share BSE barometer Sensex declined 271.17 points or 0.33 per cent to settle at 82,059.42. The Nifty dipped 74.35 points or 0.30 per cent to 24,945.45. PTI SUM MR MR