New Delhi, July 3(HS): The domestic stock market experienced fluctuations and closed down for the second consecutive day. Trading began robustly, with a tussle between buyers and sellers causing volatility in the Sensex and Nifty indices. The Sensex ended with a 0.20 percent gain while the Nifty gained 0.19 percent. Significant buying was observed in sectors such as automobile, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals, with capital goods, consumer durables, and FMCG indices also showing strength. Conversely, there was consistent selling pressure in realty, metal, and banking sectors, along with weakness in IT and tech indices.

In the broader market, mixed trading resulted in the BSE Midcap index closing down by 0.06 percent, whereas the Smallcap index rose by 0.47 percent. Overall, investors saw a decline in wealth exceeding ₹50,000 crore, bringing the market capitalization of BSE-listed companies down to ₹460.28 lakh crore from ₹460.81 lakh crore, resulting in an overall loss of approximately ₹53,000 crore today. Trading was active in 4,168 shares on the BSE; 2,010 gained, 1,995 declined, and 163 remained unchanged. The NSE saw 2,646 shares traded with 1,283 gaining and 1,363 losing ground. Among the Sensex's 30 shares, 11 closed up while 19 closed down; out of the Nifty's 50 shares, 21 gained while 29 lost.

The BSE's Sensex opened at 83,540.74 points, up 131.05 points. The index briefly rose to 83,850.09 points before dropping to 83,186.74 points, ultimately closing down by 170.22 points at 83,239.47 points. Similarly, the Nifty started at 25,505.10 points, gaining 51.70 points, later reaching a high of 25,587.50 points, but fell to 25,384.35 points, closing down by 48.10 points at 25,405.30 points.

Among blue-chip stocks, Apollo Hospital, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hero MotoCorp, ONGC, and Maruti Suzuki were the top gainers, while SBI Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and JSW Steel were the top losers.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar