New Delhi, 21 July (H.S.): Heavy selling in heavyweight stocks, including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India (SBI) and Reliance Industries, weighed heavily on the domestic equity markets on Tuesday, pulling the benchmark indices into negative territory by the close. Although the session began with only marginal weakness, persistent volatility and sustained selling pressure in large-cap stocks kept the markets under pressure for most of the trading day. At the close, the BSE Sensex declined 0.31 per cent, while the NSE Nifty ended 0.21 per cent lower.

The BSE Sensex opened 58.89 points lower at 77,649.63. Buying support in the initial minutes lifted the index into positive territory, where it touched an intraday high of 77,753.18 within the first 15 minutes of trading. However, selling pressure soon intensified, dragging the benchmark lower.

Around 1:00 p.m., the Sensex slipped to its intraday low of 77,337.33, down 371.19 points. Buying emerged later in the session, helping the index recover more than 130 points from the day's low before it finally settled at 77,470.11, down 238.41 points.

The NSE Nifty also opened lower by 22.45 points at 24,216.05. Early buying pushed the index to an intraday high of 24,262.20, up 23.70 points. However, sustained selling in heavyweight stocks reversed the gains, causing the benchmark to slide steadily through the day.

At around 1:00 p.m., the Nifty touched an intraday low of 24,135.65, down 102.85 points. Fresh buying in the latter half of the session helped trim losses, and the index recovered more than 50 points from the day's low before closing at 24,187.70, down 50.80 points.

Throughout the session, information technology, banking, oil and gas, and FMCG stocks remained under selling pressure. In contrast, buying interest was visible in public sector enterprises, realty, metal, healthcare, consumer durables, capital goods and automobile stocks.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices, with the Nifty Midcap Index ending 0.30 per cent higher and the Nifty Smallcap Index gaining 0.53 per cent.

Despite the weakness in the benchmark indices, strong gains in mid-cap and small-cap stocks boosted investors' wealth by more than ₹2 lakh crore in a single trading session. The total market capitalisation of companies listed on the BSE rose to an estimated ₹484.29 lakh crore at the close of trade, compared with ₹482.20 lakh crore in the previous session, resulting in an increase of approximately ₹2.09 lakh crore in investors' wealth.

A total of 4,399 stocks were actively traded on the BSE during the session. Of these, 2,188 advanced, 2,021 declined and 190 closed unchanged. On the NSE, 2,972 stocks witnessed active trading, with 1,557 ending higher and 1,415 finishing lower.

Among the 30 Sensex constituents, 21 stocks closed in positive territory while nine ended lower. Similarly, 31 of the 50 Nifty constituents advanced, while 19 declined.

Among the blue-chip gainers, Shriram Finance surged 2.52 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv (2.10 per cent), Eicher Motors (1.67 per cent), UltraTech Cement (1.60 per cent) and HCL Technologies (1.49 per cent).

On the losing side, HDFC Bank fell 2.08 per cent, followed by State Bank of India (1.47 per cent), Reliance Industries (1.47 per cent), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (1.40 per cent) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which declined 1.33 per cent.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar