New Delhi, August 12(HS): After a day of sharp swings and relentless tussle between bulls and bears, Indian equity markets ended Tuesday’s trade in negative territory, shaving nearly ₹87,000 crore off investor wealth.
The BSE Sensex slipped 368.49 points, or 0.46%, to settle at 80,235.59, while the NSE Nifty 50 declined 97.65 points, or 0.40%, to close at 24,487.40. The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies dropped to ₹443.26 lakh crore from the previous day’s ₹444.13 lakh crore.
The trading day opened on a cautious note, with the Sensex starting just under 80,510 before climbing in morning trade to an intraday high of 80,997.67. However, sustained profit booking in banking, realty, defence, FMCG, and capital goods counters pulled the index down sharply to a low of 80,164.36 before a late-session recovery trimmed losses. Nifty followed a similar trajectory, hitting 24,702.60 before sliding to 24,465.65 and ending marginally higher than its day’s low.
Sectoral trends were mixed. Automobiles, pharmaceuticals, IT, energy, metals, public sector enterprises, oil & gas, and technology indices closed in the green, lending some resilience to the benchmarks. In contrast, real estate, banking, consumer durables, capital goods, and FMCG stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off.
In the Sensex pack, top gainers included Maruti Suzuki (+1.93%), Tech Mahindra (+1.90%), Hero MotoCorp (+1.82%), Mahindra & Mahindra (+1.58%), and NTPC (+1.18%). The biggest drags were Bajaj Finance (-2.83%), Trent (-1.43%), Hindustan Unilever (-1.37%), HDFC Bank (-1.29%), and Nestlé India (-1.26%).
Broader market participation was active: on the BSE, out of 4,204 traded stocks, 2,065 advanced, 1,977 declined, and 162 ended unchanged. On the NSE, 1,306 stocks closed higher while 1,392 ended in the red.
The day’s pattern reflected heightened intraday volatility, with traders selectively buying into certain sectors but cashing out aggressively in others—signaling continued investor caution amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and global market cues.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
