-Late Sell-Off Halts Market Rally; Sensex, Nifty Slip from Day’s Highs but End Positive
New Delhi, September 8 (HS): Indian equities staged a strong performance through the trading session on Monday, only to lose steam in the final hour as profit-booking dragged benchmarks off their intraday highs. Despite the late sell-off, both Sensex and Nifty managed to close with modest gains, extending optimism across the market.
The BSE Sensex, after opening firmly at 80,904.40, surged over 460 points intraday to scale 81,171.38 by mid-afternoon. However, heavy selling in the last hour trimmed most of the gains, with the index settling just 76.54 points higher at 80,787.30. Similarly, NSE’s Nifty jumped nearly 145 points to touch 24,885.50 before slipping to a close of 24,773.15, up a modest 32.15 points.
Sectoral Performance
Top Gainers: Strong buying was witnessed in auto, metals, PSU banks, oil & gas, and capital goods stocks. Tata Motors (+4.02%), Mahindra & Mahindra (+3.93%), Bajaj Auto (+3.84%), Eicher Motors (+3.56%), and JSW Steel (+2.64%) emerged as top performers.
Top Losers: FMCG, pharma, IT, and consumer durables bore the brunt of profit booking. Trent (-3.85%), Asian Paints (-1.90%), Nestle (-1.72%), SBI Life (-1.35%), and Dr. Reddy’s Labs (-1.38%) were among the key laggards.
Midcaps & Smallcaps Outperform
Despite volatility in frontline indices, broader markets remained resilient. The BSE Midcap index advanced 0.33% while the Smallcap index climbed 0.30%, reflecting widespread buying interest.
Investor Wealth Rises
Backed by early strength across sectors, investors’ wealth ballooned by over ₹1.36 lakh crore in a single day. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rose to ₹452.80 lakh crore (provisional) from Friday’s ₹451.44 lakh crore.
Market Breadth
On the BSE, out of 4,407 actively traded shares, 2,286 closed higher, 1,940 ended lower, and 181 remained unchanged. On the NSE, 1,731 stocks closed in the green against 1,055 in red.
The day’s trade reflected investor optimism tempered by cautious profit-taking, as markets weighed strong domestic buying interest against persistent global uncertainties.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
