Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices opened lower on Tuesday as fresh foreign fund outflows and heavy losses in Bajaj Finance dragged market sentiment. The BSE Sensex fell 259.36 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 83,275.99, while the NSE Nifty declined 72.90 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 25,501.45 in early trade.

Bajaj Finance shares tumbled 7 per cent after the company revised its Assets Under Management growth guidance downward amid rising concerns of asset stress. Bajaj Finserv also dropped 6.5 per cent. Other major laggards included Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, SBI, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

On the gainers' side, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, and Eternal posted modest gains.

Broader Asian markets were mixed, with South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei 225 trading higher, while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped into the red.

In the United States, equity markets closed sharply higher on Monday, with the S&P 500 rising 1.54 per cent and the Nasdaq 100 surging 2.20 per cent—marking their strongest single-day gains since May. This came after the Senate advanced legislation to end the prolonged government shutdown, according to Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research at HDFC Securities.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington will soon reduce tariffs on India as both countries near the finalisation of a new trade deal.

Brent crude prices slipped 0.19 per cent to USD 63.94 per barrel. On the institutional front, Foreign Institutional Investors sold shares worth Rs 4,114.85 crore on Monday, while Domestic Institutional Investors purchased stocks worth Rs 5,805.26 crore, as per exchange data.

In the previous session, the Sensex had gained 319.07 points to close at 83,535.35, while the Nifty ended 82.05 points higher at 25,574.35.

With inputs from PTI