New Delhi, 20 July (H.S.):The Indian stock market witnessed a weak trading session on Monday as a sharp rise in international crude oil prices and heavy selling pressure in banking sector stocks weighed on market sentiment. The market opened on a negative note, and selling pressure intensified after the opening bell, leading to further losses.

However, buying activity emerged shortly before 1 pm, helping the market recover significantly from the day’s lows. At the end of the trading session, the BSE Sensex closed 0.57 per cent lower, while the NSE Nifty ended with a decline of 0.39 per cent. Despite the overall weakness, investors gained more than Rs 1.84 lakh crore due to buying interest in the broader market.

The BSE Sensex opened almost unchanged at 78,151.45 points. Shortly after trading began, selling pressure dragged the index lower. The downward trend continued until shortly before 1 pm, when the Sensex fell 783.16 points to touch the day’s low of 77,368.29 points.

Following this, investors started buying stocks, leading to a recovery in the index. Supported by sustained buying, the Sensex recovered more than 400 points from its lowest level and reached 77,783.26 points around 2 pm. However, the index could not sustain the gains and closed the day at 77,708.52 points, down 442.93 points.

Unlike the Sensex, the NSE Nifty opened 144.25 points lower at 24,190.05 points. The index continued to decline after the market opened due to persistent selling pressure. The Nifty slipped 198.45 points to hit an intraday low of 24,135.85 points amid widespread selling in stocks.

Later, fresh buying support helped the index recover. Shortly after 2 pm, the Nifty gained 130.25 points from the day’s low to reach 24,266.10 points. However, renewed selling pressure in the later part of the session pushed the index lower again. The Nifty finally closed at 24,238.50 points, declining 95.80 points.

During the day’s trading, banking and automobile sector stocks remained under pressure due to continuous selling. The IT index also ended in negative territory. On the other hand, pharmaceutical, public sector enterprise and metal stocks witnessed strong buying interest.

Oil and gas, consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG indices also closed in the green. The broader market performed better, with the Nifty Midcap index gaining 0.60 per cent, while the Smallcap index ended 0.16 per cent higher.

Despite the decline in the benchmark indices, buying activity in midcap and smallcap stocks helped increase investors’ wealth by more than Rs 1.80 lakh crore. The total market capitalisation of companies listed on the BSE rose to Rs 482.67 lakh crore (provisional) after Monday’s trading, compared with Rs 480.83 lakh crore on the previous trading day, Friday. This resulted in a gain of nearly Rs 1.84 lakh crore for investors.

During the day, 4,514 shares were actively traded on the BSE. Of these, 2,226 shares closed higher, 2,039 declined, while 249 shares ended unchanged. On the NSE, 2,985 shares witnessed active trading, with 1,575 stocks closing in the green and 1,410 ending in the red.

Among the 30 Sensex constituents, 19 stocks closed with gains, while 11 ended lower. In the Nifty 50 index, 36 stocks closed positively and 14 declined.

Among major stocks, Trent Limited emerged as the top gainer, rising 2.94 per cent, followed by Power Grid Corporation (1.82 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1.64 per cent), Cipla (1.61 per cent) and JSW Steel (1.59 per cent).

On the losing side, Axis Bank declined 5.46 per cent, HDFC Bank fell 5.12 per cent, Maruti Suzuki dropped 2.09 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank declined 2.03 per cent and Jio Financial Services slipped 1.67 per cent, making them the top five losers of the session.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar