BENGALURU, Jan 23 Reuters Indian shares surrendered early gains to drop in the afternoon session on Tuesday, as HDFC Bank led a decline in financials, while Zee Entertainment plunged nearly 30 after its merger with Sony39;s India unit collapsed.

The bluechip NSE Nifty 50 and the SP BSE Sensex both slid 1 each, to 21,352.25 points and 70,750.29, respectively, as of 122 p.m. IST.

The Nifty had risen by as much as 0.8 and the Sensex by 0.86, earlier in the day.

HDFC Bank fell 3, extending to 14 its losses since its disappointing results last week. It was the biggest drag on the benchmark Nifty index and sparked a 1.6 slide in financial stocks, which have the most weight among the 13 major sectors.

Mixed results this earnings season indicate specific stocks will drive the market as no common trend has emerged so far, said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president for research at SMC Global Securities.

HDFC Bank continues to see weakness due to liquidations from foreign investors, while small and midcap indexes are undergoing longawaited corrections after the runup in valuations, said Jain.

The small and midcap indexes were down 1.5 and 2.2, respectively. They have outperformed their larger peers so far this year, replicating their form from last year.

Losses in the market also came on the back of participants slashing their position into equities on volatile future and equity FO expiry week, said Rahul Sharma, head of technical research at Mumbaibased investment…