Nifty, Sensex Flat As Heavyweights Remain Muted

The Indian stock market continued its path to correction in the Thursday trading session. Despite the strong start the benchmark indices, Nifty and Sensex gave flat closing. Investors turned to profit booking before as the corporate earnings season began while eagerly awaiting the budget. 

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 index ended almost flat at 24,315 whereas the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex also settled 22 points or 0.03 per cent lower at 79,902 levels on the closing bell. 

Nifty Moves

In the Nifty50 index, 23 stocks advanced in the positive territory and 26 stocks ended in the red territory, while SBI Life closed flat. 

Among the winners, government PSUs ONGC and BPCL topped the index with more than 2 per cent gain followed by 1.9 per cent gain in Coal India. ITC and Tata Motors also gained 1.59 and 1.52 per cent respectively. 

Among the losers, Tata Consumers shredded 1.69 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.48 per cent, Mahindra and Mahindra 1.24 per cent and Divis Lab 1.17 per cent. 

Analyst Note

“After early volatility and a sharp fall thereafter, markets recouped most of its losses to end marginally lower at close on selective profit-taking despite optimism in global equities. We have already seen most of the rally part before the budget, hence investors would be cautiously optimistic and may take selective bets over the next few weeks,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities. 

Sectoral Movement

In terms of sectoral performance, Nifty Bank moved 0.16 per cent higher, whereas Financial Services closed flat. Further, PSU Banks also ended with slight gains of 0.17 per cent. 

Metal closed flat, while Auto fell 0.18 per cent. IT also ended with slight gains. Further, FMCG gained 0.28 per cent and Pharma lost 0.6 per cent

The more domestically focussed indices, Mid-cap and Small cap traded with decent gains and ended 0.40 per cent and 0.69 per cent higher respectively.