The Indian benchmark indices closed lower on Thursday, with the Nifty hovering around 24,550, as selling pressure was seen across various sectors. This decline came ahead of the release of retail inflation data later in the day and Friday's WPI inflation figures.
At the close, the Sensex was down by 236.18 points, or 0.29 per cent, at 81,289.96, and the Nifty fell by 93.10 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 24,548.70.
Among the top gainers on the BSE Sensex were Tech M, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Adani Ports. On the other hand, NTPC, HUL, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and L&T were among the biggest losers.
Despite positive global cues, the Indian market opened lower but recovered in the early hours, remaining flat during the first half of the session. However, profit booking in the latter half pulled the Nifty below 24,550, with broad-based selling across most sectors, except Information Technology.
With the exception of IT, all other sectoral indices ended in the red, with the Media index falling by 2 per cent and the FMCG index losing 1 per cent. The BSE Midcap index declined by 0.5 per cent, while the Smallcap index dropped by 1 per cent.
Over 250 stocks reached their 52-week highs on the BSE, including Chalet Hotels, EID Parry, Max Healthcare, Muthoot Finance, Coforge, Tech Mahindra, Vedanta, Persistent Systems, Kaynes Technologies, Info Edge, Dixon Technologies, LTIMindtree, Infosys, Firstsource Solutions, HCL Technologies, Wipro, and MphasiS, among others.
Commenting on today's market performance, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, "The market continued to remain range bound ahead of domestic CPI data and a weakening rupee. Though inflation is anticipated to drop, investors are maintaining a close vigil on the vegetable prices, which will determine the future rate trajectory. Meanwhile, the Nifty IT index reached a new high after US inflation data met expectations, boosting hopes for a Fed rate cut next week."