Share Market Today: Sensex Gains 112 Points; Nifty Holds 22100. Asian Paints Up 4%

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday staged a smart recovery after recouping huge intraday losses. The S&P BSE Sensex, which plunged 798 points to a low of 71,866, ended at 72,776, up 112 points. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 closed at 22,104, up 49 points after hitting a low of 21,821.

Stock update

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Asian Paints gained 3.83 per cent followed by Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, TCS, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank emerged gainers. On the downside, Tata Motors slipped over 8 per cent. NTPC, SBI, Airtel, Titan, Nestle were the other laggards.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index rose 0.36 per cent, while the BSE Smallcap dropped 0.23 per cent. Both the indices had declined 1.5 per cent each intraday.

Sectoral update

Sectorally, Nifty Auto and PSU Bank indices sank over 1 per cent each, while Nifty Pharma rose 1.77 per cent.

In the previous session on Friday, the BSE benchmark climbed 260 points to settle at 72,664, while the NSE Nifty50 advanced 98 points to 22,055.

Global market updates

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai settled lower while Hong Kong ended in the positive territory. European markets were trading mostly lower. Wall Street ended mostly higher on Friday.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,117.50 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.28 per cent to $83.02 a barrel.

Rupee slips 1 paisa

Meanwhile, the rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled for the day lower by 1 paisa at 83.52 (provisional) against US dollar on Monday, as the support from positive domestic equities was negated by strong American currency. Forex traders said with foreign investors buying US dollars and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) selling the greenback, the USD/INR pair is expected to remain range-bound with a bit of a weakness bias.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit traded in a narrow range. It opened at 83.51, and touched an intraday low of 83.53 during the day. The domestic unit finally settled for the day at 83.52 (provisional), down 1 paisa from its previous close. On Friday, the rupee closed at 83.51 against the American currency.

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