Delhi, 2 September (H.S.): Indian stock market closed on a negative note Tuesday after witnessing intense intraday volatility. Both benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, started the day on a strong footing with gains maintained till early afternoon. However, profit booking and selling pressure in the latter half led to a significant reversal with Sensex plunging over 750 points from its intraday high and Nifty falling more than 230 points from peak levels.

The market opened sharply higher—Sensex surged 155.60 points to 80,520.09, and Nifty rose 27.95 points to 24,653. Shortly after, buoyed by steady buying, Sensex hit an intraday high of 80,761.14 and Nifty peaked at 24,756.10. But post 1 PM, both indices experienced heavy profit-taking, dragging the Sensex down by 752.64 points to 80,008.50 at its low and Nifty down 233.75 points to 24,522.35. The volatile session ended with Sensex closing 206.61 points (0.26%) lower at 80,157.88 and Nifty down 45.45 points (0.18%) at 24,579.60.

Sector-wise, heavy profit booking was seen in financials, banking, realty, and IT shares. Auto, consumer durables, healthcare, and tech stocks also ended in the red. Conversely, public sector enterprises, oil & gas, metals, FMCG, and capital goods shares attracted buying interest. The broader market showed resilience with the BSE Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index gaining 0.64%.

Despite the intraday dip in the headline indices, robust buying in midcap and smallcap stocks helped investors collectively gain Rs 1.09 lakh crore in wealth on Tuesday. The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies climbed to Rs 449.94 lakh crore from Rs 448.85 lakh crore on Monday.

Trading activity was brisk, with 4,285 stocks active on BSE: 2,529 advanced, 1,612 declined, and 144 remained unchanged. On NSE, 2,780 stocks traded actively with 1,737 gaining and 1,043 falling. Among Sensex constituents, 14 shares ended higher while 16 closed lower. In the Nifty 50 pack, 27 shares gained against 23 that lost value.

Top gainers included Power Grid Corporation (+2.45%), Tata Consumer Products (+2.33%), Nestle (+2.26%), NTPC (+1.69%), and Tata Steel (+1.42%). Major losers were Mahindra & Mahindra (-2.44%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (-2.05%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (-1.33%), ICICI Bank (-1.19%), and Asian Paints (-1.18%).

The market was influenced by weak global cues, uncertainty surrounding Nifty futures and options contracts expiry which shifted to Tuesday from Thursday as of this month, and caution ahead of the upcoming GST Council meeting. The early gains driven by optimistic economic data and commodity rallies faded amid profit booking, especially in banking stocks that bear heavy weightage in the indexes.

Overall, the markets showed a cautious mood with a bifurcation between strong breadth in midcap and smallcap stocks and profit-taking from the large-cap heavyweights. Investors remain watchful of global developments and domestic policy triggers shaping outlook in the near term.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar