-Midcap, Smallcap weakness drags overall market wealth lower

New Delhi, August 14 (HS): Domestic equity benchmarks closed marginally higher on Wednesday after a choppy session dominated by bouts of buying and profit-taking. The day began on a flat-to-mixed note, with bulls and bears locked in a tug-of-war that kept indices swinging between positive and negative territory.

By close, the Sensex added just 57.75 points (0.07%) to settle at 80,597.66, while the Nifty 50 inched up 11.95 points (0.05%) to finish at 24,631.30.

Sectoral Snapshot

Gains in banking, IT, technology, and consumer durables lent support to the benchmarks, while heavy selling pressure persisted in public sector enterprises, oil & gas, and metals. Healthcare, FMCG, capital goods, and automobile indices also ended in the red.

In the broader market, sentiment remained weak — the BSE Midcap index slipped 0.18% and the Smallcap index fell 0.59% as persistent selling hit secondary counters.

Market Wealth Takes a Knock

Despite the slight uptick in frontline indices, the erosion in midcap and smallcap stocks shaved off nearly ₹83,000 crore from investors’ wealth. The total market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell to ₹444.56 lakh crore (provisional) from ₹445.39 lakh crore in the previous session.

Market Breadth

- BSE: Of the 4,215 actively traded stocks, 1,761 ended higher, 2,305 closed lower, and 149 were unchanged.

- NSE: Out of 2,672 active stocks, 1,009 advanced while 1,663 declined.

- Sensex: 14 gainers, 16 losers.

- Nifty: 24 gainers, 26 losers.

Intraday Movements

- Sensex: Opened at 80,625.28 (+85.37 pts), scaled an intraday high of 80,751.18 (+211.27 pts) and a low of 80,489.86 (-50.05 pts) before closing marginally up.

- Nifty: Opened at 24,607.25 (-12.10 pts), hit a high of 24,673.65 (+54.30 pts) and a low of 24,596.90 (-22.45 pts) before settling barely changed.

Top Nifty Gainers

- Wipro: +2.14%

- Eterna: +1.94%

- HDFC Life: +1.56%

- Infosys: +1.48%

- Asian Paints: +1.14%

Top Nifty Losers

- Tata Steel: -3.05%

- Adani Ports: -1.46%

- Tech Mahindra: -1.30%

- Hero MotoCorp: -1.27%

- Bharat Electronics: -1.02%

Analysts said the market is likely to remain in a consolidation mode amid mixed global cues, with selective buying in largecaps offset by profit-booking in broader segments. The approaching long weekend and upcoming economic data releases could also keep volatility elevated.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar