New Delhi, May 12 (IANS): Indian stock market settled in the red on Tuesday, although the indices trimmed major losses with the BSE Sensex closing 190 points lower.

Weakness in the Indian indices reflected losses in the benchmark Asian markets, analysts said.

Heavy selling was witnessed in the energy and oil & gas stocks on Tuesday. The S&P BSE Energy index was down 5 per cent while the BSE Oil & Gas index closed 2.6 per cent lower.

Sensex closed at 31,371.12, lower by 190.10 points or 0.60 per cent from the previous close of 31,561.22.

Earlier in the day, it fell as much as 716.56 points to touch an intra-day low of 30,844.66. It touched intra-day high of 31,536.89 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 9,196.55 points, lower by 42.65 points or 0.46 per cent from its previous close.

Rahul Sharma, Head of Research, Equity99 Advisors, said: "Traders continued to unwind long positions on weak corporate earnings and delay in announcement of fiscal stimulus by the government. Weak overnight clues from global markets also added to the weak sentiments."

He said that the fall on the indices on Tuesday was led by index-heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), as traders went short on the stock ahead of ex-rights price on Thursday.

RIL was the topmost loser on the Sensex with 6.12 per cent fall, followed by Asian Paints (down 2.93 per cent) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.51 per cent).

On the other hand, NTPC gained the most, by 5.71 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (up 4.39 per cent) and ITC (4.13 per cent).