Stock Market Ends With Marginal Gains: Sensex Rises 64 Points, Nifty Settles Below 19,400. Metals Lead

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, Reliance was top gainer, up 3.78 per cent. The other gainers were Tata Steel, Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, and others

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday closed with marginal gains in a highly volatile session. After oscillating between gains and losses during intra-day trading, the indices managed to settle in the green, mostly because of Reliance. The S&P BSE Sensex closed 64 points higher at 65,344. It hit a high of 65,633 and thereafter slipped into red to a low of 65,246. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 ended at 19,356, up 24 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Reliance was top gainer, up 3.78 per cent. RIL alone contributed 302 points to the BSE benchmark. The company has fixed July 20, 2023 as the record date to determine shareholders entitled to receive shares in its new financial services entity. The other gainers were Tata Steel, Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, and others. On the downside, Titan, HCL, PowerGrid, TCS, Wipro, Axis Bank were among the top losers.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index down 0.45 per cent and Smallcap index shed 0.25 per cent.

Sectorally, except metal (up 1.8 per cent), all other sectoral indices ended in the red.

In the previous session on Friday,  the S&P BSE Sensex plunged 505 points to settle at 65,280, while the Nifty50 sank below the 19,350-mark to close at 19,332, down 165 points.

"Indian equities faced broad-based weakness, but the benchmark managed to stay marginally positive with the support of strong buying in heavyweight stocks. The weakness was led by IT stocks, as the sector is set to kick off the Q1 result season with expectations of soft earnings. Additionally, cues from the US markets are unfavourable, as concerns about another rate hike persist despite expectations of a fast cooling of future US CPI inflation data," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the green while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended with losses on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.80 per cent to $77.84 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled for the day higher by 3 paise at 82.58 against the US dollar on Monday, amid a muted trend in domestic equities. Rupee is trading in a narrow range as the softness in the US dollar and sustained FII inflows were negated by risk aversion in global markets, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 82.65 against the US dollar and settled at 82.58 (provisional), up 3 paise over its previous close. During the day, the domestic unit witnessed an intra-day high of 82.55 and a low of 82.65. On Friday, the rupee had settled at 82.61 against the dollar.