New Delhi, May 18 (H.S.): The domestic stock market staged a remarkable recovery on Monday after witnessing a sharp decline of nearly 1.5 percent during early trading and eventually closed in positive territory. Trading had begun on a weak note, and sustained selling pressure after the opening dragged both the Sensex and the Nifty significantly lower. However, after 10 a.m., buyers returned aggressively to the market, enabling the Sensex to rebound more than 1,280 points from the day’s low. Similarly, the Nifty recovered over 375 points from its intraday low. Owing to this strong comeback, the Sensex closed with a gain of 0.10 percent, while the Nifty ended 0.03 percent higher.

Throughout the trading session, information technology stocks witnessed strong buying interest, resulting in the Nifty IT Index surging 2.43 percent by the close. Apart from IT, the healthcare and technology indices also settled firmly in the green. On the other hand, heavy selling pressure persisted in automobile, consumer durables, and metal stocks. Indices related to public sector enterprises, oil and gas, FMCG, capital goods, and banking sectors also closed in negative territory.

The broader market remained under pressure throughout the session. As a result, the Nifty Midcap Index ended 0.15 percent lower, while the Smallcap Index closed with a sharp decline of 1.26 percent.

The continuous sell-off in midcap and smallcap shares eroded investors’ wealth by more than ₹1.5 lakh crore during the day. The total market capitalisation of companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) declined to ₹458.38 lakh crore (provisional) by the close of trading. On the previous trading session last Friday, the market capitalisation stood at ₹460.02 lakh crore. Thus, investors incurred losses of approximately ₹1.64 lakh crore during Monday’s session.

A total of 4,492 stocks were actively traded on the BSE during the day. Among them, 1,264 stocks closed with gains, while 3,034 stocks declined and 194 remained unchanged. On the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE), 2,991 stocks witnessed active trading, of which 768 advanced and 2,223 declined. Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 17 ended higher and 13 closed lower. Similarly, out of the 50 Nifty stocks, 23 settled in the green while 27 ended in the red.

The BSE Sensex opened 430.02 points lower at 74,807.97. Following the opening bell, intense selling pressure continued to drag the index downward. Shortly after 10 a.m., the Sensex plunged 1,057.73 points to touch the intraday low of 74,180.26. Thereafter, strong buying support emerged in the market, helping the index recover steadily. Towards the close of trading, the Sensex had rebounded 1,286.34 points from the day’s low to touch an intraday high of 75,466.60, reflecting a gain of 228.61 points. However, late profit-booking trimmed some gains, and the index eventually settled 77.05 points higher at 75,315.04.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty opened 161.30 points lower at 23,482.20. Continuous selling pressure after the opening dragged the index down further. Shortly after 10 a.m., the Nifty had fallen 326.40 points to touch the day’s low of 23,317.10. Subsequently, aggressive buying by investors triggered a recovery in the benchmark index. Near the end of the trading session, the Nifty rebounded 378.55 points from the day’s low to reach an intraday high of 23,695.65, reflecting a gain of 52.15 points. However, intraday settlement-related selling during the final phase of trading erased part of the gains, and the index finally closed marginally higher by 6.45 points at 23,649.95.

Among the blue-chip stocks, Tech Mahindra emerged as the top gainer with a rise of 4.34 percent, followed by Infosys at 2.10 percent, Bharti Airtel at 1.72 percent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at 1.47 percent, and Bajaj Finserv at 1.45 percent.

On the losing side, Tata Steel declined 3.29 percent, followed by Power Grid Corporation of India at 3.04 percent, State Bank of India at 2.47 percent, NTPC Limited at 1.76 percent, and Bajaj Auto at 1.72 percent, making them the top losers of the day.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar