New Delhi, 11 August (H.S.): The domestic stock market ended lower on Tuesday, the day of the weekly Nifty expiry, after opening with marginal losses. Selling pressure remained dominant for most of the first half of the trading session, pushing both the Sensex and Nifty deeper into negative territory. However, buying activity picked up during the second half, allowing the benchmark indices to recover some of their losses. At the close, the Sensex fell 0.49 per cent, while the Nifty declined 0.46 per cent.
The BSE Sensex opened 32.67 points, or 0.04 per cent, lower at 78,509.77. Selling pressure intensified soon after the market opened, sending the index steadily lower. Persistent selling dragged the Sensex to an intraday low of 78,048.26 around noon, marking a decline of 494.18 points, or 0.63 per cent.
Thereafter, buying interest emerged and helped the index recover from its low. The Sensex ultimately closed 388.19 points, or 0.49 per cent, lower at 78,154.25, recovering more than 100 points from the day’s low.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty began the session at 24,575.10, down 8.70 points, or 0.04 per cent. Broad-based selling immediately after the opening pushed the index lower. By the end of the first half, the Nifty had fallen 154.55 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 24,429.25.
Buying in the second half provided some support, helping the index recover more than 40 points from its intraday low. The Nifty eventually settled at 24,471.70, down 112.10 points, or 0.46 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, pharmaceutical and IT stocks witnessed buying interest during the session. The oil and gas index also managed to finish marginally higher. In contrast, FMCG, metal and automobile stocks remained under selling pressure. Banking, capital goods, consumer durables and public sector enterprise indices also ended in the red.
The broader market witnessed mixed trends. The Nifty Midcap index slipped marginally by 0.02 per cent, while the Smallcap index gained 0.22 per cent.
The decline in equities resulted in a loss of more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore in investors’ wealth. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined to Rs 492.78 lakh crore (provisional) at the end of Tuesday’s trading, compared with Rs 495.31 lakh crore on Monday. Consequently, investors lost approximately Rs 2.53 lakh crore during the session.
A total of 4,510 stocks were actively traded on the BSE. Of these, 2,033 stocks closed higher, while 2,279 declined and 198 remained unchanged.
On the NSE, 3,041 stocks witnessed active trading, with 1,270 ending in positive territory and 1,771 closing lower. Among the 30 Sensex constituents, five advanced while 25 declined. Of the 50 Nifty constituents, 13 stocks closed with gains and 37 ended with losses.
Among the major gainers, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories rose 3.99 per cent, Eternal gained 2.50 per cent, TCS advanced 0.82 per cent, Titan Company climbed 0.75 per cent and Infosys gained 0.65 per cent, making them the top five gainers of the session.
On the losing side, Tata Consumer Products declined 2.77 per cent, Max Healthcare fell 2.71 per cent, Nestle dropped 2.32 per cent, UltraTech Cement slipped 2.14 per cent and Apollo Hospitals declined 1.81 per cent, emerging as the five biggest losers among the major stocks.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
