Indian shares opened lower on Tuesday as oil prices surged nearly 5 percent overnight amid growing doubts over a near-term agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The benchmark BSE Sensex fell 340 points, or 0.4 percent, to 78,201 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty index dipped 93 points, or 0.4 percent, to 24,490. Among the prominent decliners, Power Grid Corp, Eternal, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Indigo, UltraTech Cement and Axis Bank all fell around 1 percent. Zee Entertainment Enterprises dropped 2.2 percent after its first-quarter profit nearly halved. IT stocks bucked the trend, with Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Technologies rising between 0.6 percent and 1.4 percent. Gland Pharma soared 11 percent on a 47 percent jump in first-quarter net profit, Lumax Auto Technologies skyrocketed 10 percent after more than doubling its first-quarter net profit, and PC Jeweller gained 6 percent after first-quarter operating earnings nearly doubled.
