New Delhi, August 6 (H.S.): The domestic stock market experienced fluctuations throughout the day, ultimately closing lower. Trading began slightly weak, but buying support briefly pushed the indices into positive territory. However, selling pressure caused both the Sensex and Nifty to decline. At the end of trading, the Sensex was down 0.21 percent and the Nifty down 0.31 percent. Continuous selling was noted across IT, pharmaceutical, FMCG, and real estate sectors, with declines also seen in sectors such as automobile, capital goods, consumer durables, metal, oil and gas, and public sector enterprises.

In contrast, banking sector stocks saw consistent buying. The broader market also faced pressure, leading to a 1 percent drop in the BSE mid-cap index and a 1.14 percent decline in the small-cap index. Investors lost over 2.88 trillion rupees in wealth due to the market downturn, with the BSE's total market capitalization dropping to approximately 445.08 trillion rupees from 447.96 trillion rupees the previous day.

Today's trading involved 4,204 shares on the BSE, of which 1,352 closed positive, 2,697 closed negative, and 155 had no fluctuations. On the NSE, out of 2,668 shares traded, 730 gained while 1,938 lost. In the Sensex, 11 of the 30 stocks rose, while 19 fell; in the Nifty, 12 of 50 stocks were in the green, and 38 in the red. The Sensex opened with a dip of 15.27 points but initially jumped after buying support before succumbing to selling that drove it down 261.43 points at one stage. It eventually closed at 80,543.99 points after modest recovery.

Similarly, the Nifty fell initially by 8.20 points but also saw a brief lift due to buying before closing down at 24,574.20 points after a drop of 75.35 points. Among major stocks, Asian Paints, HDFC Life, Bharat Electronics, Trent Limited, and Adani Ports were top gainers, while Wipro, Sun Pharmaceuticals, IndusInd Bank, Jio Financial, and Tech Mahindra were the biggest losers.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar