Sensex, Nifty End With Negative Bias

The bulls continued their grip on the Dalal-Street as the indices marked yet another day of solid gains with the BSE Sensex crossing the 62,000 mark for the first time in history. However, the indices cleared all of its day's gains in the closing trade only to close in the red on Tuesday, October 19.

At close, the BSE Sensex was down 49.54 points at 61,716.05, while the Nifty-50 closed lower by 58.30 points at 18,418.75. Shares of ITC and HUL were the top losers in the 30-share pack Sensex, declining over six and four per cent, respectively. On the flipside, Tech Mahindra and Larsen advanced around four per cent each. Overall, 17 shares declined and 13 closed in the green in the BSE Sensex.

Comparing the sectoral performance, the IT and Financials were the only sectors ending in the green as all other sectors witnessed profit booking in the late deals. The Nifty IT index was up nearly three per cent in the day's trade led by shares of L&T Infotech and Mphasis as the stocks surged over 17 and seven per cent, respectively. On the flipside, the FMCG sector witnessed sustained selling throughout the day and dragged the index down by more than three per cent.

On the other hand, the broader markets underperformed in the intraday session as the BSE Midcap index fell more than two per cent, while the Smallcap index fell over a per cent. Shares of IRCTC and Tata Power were the top losers in the Midcap space as the counters slipped lower 10 per cent each, mainly due to profit booking.

Among individuals, shares of Antony waste tumbled continuosly for the second day in a row to hit the lower price band after three of the company's subsidiaries were approached and searched by the IT department till October 15, 2021. The stock hit a low of Rs 303.5, falling nearly 10 per cent.

In the overall market breadth, 1480 shares advanced and 359 shares declined in the NSE.