Mumbai: The stock markets’ three-day winning streak came to a halt on Thursday, with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty finishing slightly higher as volatile global sentiment led to profit booking, contributing to the outflow of foreign capital. After fluctuating between gains and losses throughout the day, the 30-share BSE barometer Sensex concluded with an increase of 12.16 points, or 0.01 percent, at 84,478.67. During the session, it reached a peak of 84,919.43 and dipped to a low of 84,253.05. The broader NSE Nifty closed in positive territory, rising by just 3.35 points, or 0.01 percent, to 25,879.15.
Among the Sensex constituents, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Maruti Suzuki India, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement, and HCL Technologies were the sole gainers. Conversely, Eternal, Tata Motors’ commercial vehicle division, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Trent, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, and Infosys were notable laggards. “National equities ended flat after an initially positive session, as profit booking negated early gains despite encouraging global and domestic signals. Market sentiment was lifted by Trump signing a short-term funding bill to end the US government shutdown and expectations of tariff concessions for India,” stated Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments Ltd.
The BSE Midcap index fell by 0.34 percent, while smallcap stocks dropped by 0.30 percent. “Sector-wise, the performance was mixed — realty, pharma, and metal sectors showed gains, whereas FMCG and IT sectors faced slight pressure. Additionally, the broader market experienced profit booking, with both midcap and smallcap indices decreasing by about half a percent,” added Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking Ltd. Nair also mentioned that “the record-low inflation figures for October heightened expectations for an interest rate cut by the RBI, making rate-sensitive sectors like metals and realty appealing to investors.
However, amid ongoing foreign institutional investor outflows and a weak rupee, profit booking occurred at high levels ahead of the Bihar election results, leaving the benchmark indices mostly unchanged by the close.” Among sectoral indices, Consumer Durables rose by 0.86 percent, Telecommunications by 0.70 percent, Realty by 0.43 percent, Metals by 0.36 percent, Utilities by 0.30 percent, Services by 0.26 percent, and Bankex by 0.13 percent. In contrast, Capital Goods, Auto, FMCG, Consumer Discretionary, Oil & Gas, Energy, Healthcare, Industries, IT, Power, and Tech sectors ended lower. A total of 2,450 stocks declined, while 1,773 advanced, and 144 remained unchanged on the BSE.
