New Delhi, 04 February (H.S.): Despite a sharp plunge in the IT sector, India's domestic stock market closed higher on Wednesday, as buyers dominated amid fluctuations.Trading commenced with a downturn, but robust buying within the first half-hour propelled both the Sensex and Nifty indices into positive territory. Throughout the day, a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers caused both benchmarks to oscillate repeatedly.
Ultimately, the Sensex eked out a 0.09 percent gain, while the Nifty advanced 0.19 percent by the close.The IT sector suffered a brutal 5.87 percent drop in the Nifty IT index, triggered by Anthropic's launch of new workplace productivity and automation tools, which rattled investors. Healthcare and tech indices also ended lower.
In contrast, sustained buying lifted consumer durables, metals, and realty sectors, alongside public sector enterprises, oil & gas, capital goods, and banking shares. Broader markets showed strength too, with the BSE midcap index rising 0.51 percent and the smallcap index surging 1.02 percent.
This market resilience boosted investor wealth by over ₹1.87 lakh crore in a single day. The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies climbed to ₹469.02 lakh crore (provisional) from ₹467.15 lakh crore on Tuesday.
On the BSE, active trading occurred in 4,366 shares: 2,726 advanced, 1,477 declined, and 163 remained unchanged. The NSE saw activity in 2,923 shares, with 2,012 gaining and 911 losing ground. Among Sensex constituents, 23 of 30 shares closed higher and 7 lower; for the Nifty 50, 37 advanced and 13 declined.
The BSE Sensex opened 487.07 points lower at 83,252.06 but quickly recovered into green territory after initial buying. Profit-taking later dragged it back into the red, only for buyers to regain control post-1 PM, pushing it to 83,947.53—a gain of 208.40 points. It settled at 83,817.69, up 78.56 points.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty opened 52.50 points down at 25,675.05, fluctuated wildly—sliding to 25,563.95 (down 163.60 points) before rebounding over 250 points from lows to hit 25,818.55 (up 91 points). Late-session profit-booking trimmed gains, closing at 25,776—up 48.45 points.
Top gainers among frontline stocks included Eternal (5.13%), Trent Ltd (4.96%), ONGC (3.87%), NTPC (2.43%), and Adani Ports (2.42%). Leading losers were Infosys (7.26% down), TCS (7.01%), HCL Tech (4.34%), Tech Mahindra (4.15%), and Wipro (3.85%).
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
