Stock Market Ends Marginally Lower, Sensex Settles Above 69,500, Nifty Manages To Hold Over 20,900

On the 30-share Sensex platform, PowerGrid, UltraTech, and SBI emerged as the prime gainers for the day. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, HUL, and ICICI Bank stood among the losers for the day.

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday, broke away from their rally and settled with some losses as trading ended. The BSE Sensex fell about 132 points to close at 69,521.69, while the NSE Nifty50 just about managed to stay above 20,900 and slipped 37 points to settle at 20,901.15 as the markets closed for the day.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, PowerGrid, UltraTech Cement, NTPC, Titan, and SBI emerged as the prime gainers for the day. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, ITC, and ICICI Bank stood among the losers for the day.

The broader markets closed mostly in green, with the Nifty Next 50 leading the gains with an increase of 0.80 per cent. Other major gainers in the day included the Nifty Micap 50 and Nifty Midcap 100, both up by 0.65 per cent and 0.59 per cent respectively. Apart from the Nifty50, the other index in loss was the Nifty Microcap 250, which dipped 0.06 per cent.

Sectorally, the indices displayed mixed behaviour during the day. Among the gainers, the Nifty Consumer Durables and Media indices remained in the lead, up by 1.03 per cent and 0.92 per cent respectively. The Nifty FMCG index led the losses and was trading lower by 0.90 per cent, followed by the Nifty Metal index, which slipped 0.75 per cent during the day.

In the previous session on Wednesday, the two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, continued rallying on the investor sentiment and touched new lifetime highs during the day. The BSE Sensex hit a fresh all-time high of 69,744.62 during the day, before settling at 69,653.73, a gain of more than 350 points. The NSE Nifty50 inched closer to reaching the 21,000 mark, and made a record high at 20,961.95, before finally closing at 20,937.65, up by almost 83 points. 

Among specific stocks on the NSE, Adani Ports continued to follow its pattern in the week and closed 2.56 per cent higher as trading ended. PowerGrid, UltraTech Cement, and Cipla remained among other major gainers during the day.

The domestic rupee depreciated 4 paise to close at 83.36 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, owing to the elevated dollar in the overseas market and a muted trend in domestic equities. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the Indian rupee opened at 83.36 and hit a low of 83.37 against the greenback. A day earlier, the rupee appreciated by 5 paise and settled at 83.32 against the American dollar.

Exchange data revealed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 79.88 crore on Wednesday.