New Delhi, 21 August (H.S.): The domestic stock market ended almost flat with marginal gains on Friday after witnessing range-bound volatility throughout the trading session. The market opened on a firm note, but buying and selling pressures soon triggered fluctuations in both the Sensex and Nifty. While buyers repeatedly attempted to build momentum during the first half of the session, sellers remained largely dominant during the second half. After a volatile day of trading, the Sensex gained a marginal 0.004 per cent, while the Nifty advanced 0.08 per cent.

The BSE Sensex opened 163.35 points, or 0.21 per cent, higher at 77,701.07. Soon after the opening, volatility intensified. Amid selling pressure, the index fell 255.21 points from its opening level to touch 77,445.86, marking a decline of 91.86 points, or 0.12 per cent.

Thereafter, buying activity gathered momentum, helping the index recover 279.81 points from its intraday low and climb to 77,725.67, registering a gain of 187.95 points, or 0.24 per cent. During the second half of the session, sustained selling pressure dragged the index nearly 185 points from its high. The Sensex finally closed at 77,540.83, up 3.11 points, or 0.004 per cent.

Like the Sensex, the NSE Nifty opened higher, gaining 52.20 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 24,284.05. Profit-booking soon emerged after the opening, pulling the index 77.25 points below its opening level to an intraday low of 24,206.80, a decline of 25.05 points, or 0.10 per cent.

Buying subsequently returned to the market, enabling the Nifty to recover and move into positive territory at 24,264.55. However, the index could not sustain the gains for long as selling pressure intensified during the second half of the session. At the end of the day, the Nifty closed at 24,252, up 20.15 points, or 0.08 per cent.

During the day, shares of the metal, PSU banking and realty sectors witnessed sustained buying. The capital goods, consumer durables and public sector enterprise indices also ended higher. In contrast, automobile, IT and media stocks remained under selling pressure. The FMCG, oil and gas, and pharmaceutical indices also closed in negative territory.

The broader market witnessed sustained buying activity. The Nifty Midcap index ended 0.10 per cent higher, while the Smallcap index gained 0.69 per cent.

After the day’s trading session, the wealth of stock market investors declined by nearly ₹1 lakh crore. The market capitalisation of companies listed on the BSE fell to ₹491.75 lakh crore (provisional), compared with ₹492.72 lakh crore at the close of the previous trading session on Thursday. Consequently, investors lost approximately ₹97,000 crore during Friday’s trading session.

A total of 3,058 stocks were actively traded on the NSE during the day. Of these, 1,580 stocks closed in the green with gains, while 1,478 ended in the red with losses.

Among the 30 Sensex constituents, 13 stocks closed higher, while the remaining stocks ended lower, with one stock closing unchanged. Of the 50 Nifty constituents, 25 closed with gains, 24 declined and one remained unchanged.

Among the major market movers, Power Grid Corporation, HDFC Life, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestlé India and Bharat Electronics emerged as the top five gainers, rising 2.87 per cent, 2.36 per cent, 1.37 per cent, 1.31 per cent and 1.12 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki, Trent Ltd., HCL Technologies, InterGlobe Aviation and ONGC figured among the top five losers, declining 1.77 per cent, 1.55 per cent, 1.21 per cent, 1.06 per cent and 0.88 per cent, respectively.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar