Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty erased early gains to finish with losses for the second day on the trot on Tuesday as surging Covid-19 cases and growing localised restrictions continued to dent sentiment.

The rupee also pared its initial gains to close marginally down 1 paisa at 74.88 against the dollar on Tuesday, with rising oil prices weighing down the local unit along with foreign investors selling stocks.

Gold in the national capital on Tuesday fell Rs 305 to Rs 46756 per 10 gram in line with a fall in international precious metal prices.

The 30-share Sensex on Monday oscillated in an 1040-point range as it touched an intra-day high of 48478.34 — a rise of almost 529 points as markets cheered the opening up of the vaccination programme all above 18

But investors used the rally to lighten their positions as the concerns of more lockdowns weighed on their sentiment. Analysts said investors were booking profits at every rally and the trend is likely to continue till the current wave subsided. The Sensex closed 243.62 points or 0.51 per cent lower at 47705.80 after hitting an intra-day low of 47438.50.

The NSE Nifty climbed over 167 points to reclaim the key 14,500-level during the day, but surrendered all its gains to end at 14296.40, showing a drop of 63.05 points or 0.44 per cent.

“Global markets were seen to be negative which did not support the initial recovery. Moreover, various state governments are implementing stricter local restrictions due to which the markets started giving up the gains,’’ Sandeep Gupta of Motilal Oswal Financial Services said

Growth warning

A Crisil report has warned of the grim economic scenario as with even limited restrictions on people’s movement and some businesses, power consumption and e-way GST bill collections are already down.

The report has also called for speeding up the vaccination drive that of late has been on the decline on a weekly basis.

More and more states are clamping down more localised restrictions on people movement and commerce, falling just short of a complete lockdown.

This already has electricity consumption and GST e-way bills collection, which are used as proxies to track economic activity, softening somewhat and it needs to be seen whether this softening is a blip, or marks a shift in a trend, Crisil said.