The Indian stock market piled up losses on Tuesday, July 18 as tobacco makers took a beating on news that the government raised the tax on cigarettes. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 eased 0.90% to 9,827.15, and the BSE Sensex closed 1.13% lower at 31,710.99. By 10:33 GMT, the USD/INR currency pair slipped 0.02% to 64.324, and EUR/INR was trading up 0.68% at 74.3677. The 10-year Indian government bond yield widened to 6.457%. In sectoral terms, durable goods suppliers as well as O&G names and power utilities underperformed the broader market, while IT, pharmaceutical and automotive stocks logged gains. On the NSE, the session’s advancers included Asian Paints, Eicher Motors and Axis Bank, which added 1.88%, 1.92% and 1.19%, respectively. In the bear camp, GAIL, Aurobindo Pharma and Reliance Industries shed 1.84%, 2.30% and 2.05%. As noted above, tobacco makers declined sharply, with ITC and Godfrey Phillips India tumbling 12.49% and 5.7%, respectively. Meanwhile, cement producer ACC picked up 0.69% as profit increased 33% for the quarter ended in June, outpacing the consensus forecast. The daily chart shows that a gap is shaping up on the BSE Sensex curve, while the Slow Stochastic Oscillator is about to exit overbought territory. As a result, the benchmark is likely to extend the downtrend in the short term.