Stock market failed to hold the higher levels and ended with marginal gains in the rangebound session on Thursday.

Nifty closed in green but below 25,000, led by gains in metal and banking stocks.

At close, Sensex was up 144.31 points or 0.18 per cent at 81,611.41, and the Nifty was up 16.50 points or 0.07 per cent at 24,998.50.

On Nifty, Kotak Mahindra Bank led the way, with a 4.2 per cent rise. Other notable performers included HDFC Bank, Bharat Electronics, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, Power Grid Corp, M&M, JSW Steel, NTPC and Axis Bank, all of which finished today’s session with gains exceeding 1 per cent.

Among the sectors, IT index was down 1 per cent, pharma index down 2 per cent and realty index shed 0.4 per cent. Bank index was up by 1 per cent , power index was up 0.7 per cent and metals index added 0.3 per cent.

Selling pressure in IT and pharma stocks kept the frontline indices near their previous day’s levels. Banking stocks, on the other hand, posted notable gains during the session.

Nifty Private Bank index closed the session up by 1.59 per cent , followed by the Nifty PSE, up 0.71 per cent and the Nifty Metal, up 0.4 per cent.

The BSE midcap index was down 0.3 per cent, while smallcap index was up 0.4 per cent . The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed 0.30 per cent lower at 58,935 while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index finished in the positive territory, gaining 0.19 per cent to end at 18,900.

On BSE, Apar Industries, Atul, CG Power, Coforge, Dixon Technologies, Dr Lal PathLab, Glenmark Pharma, Gujarat Alkalies, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, HCL Technologies, Hitachi Energy, Ipca Labs, MCX India, Metropolis Healthcare, Page Industries, Polycab India, Symphony, Tech Mahindra, Torrent Pharma, Whirlpool, among others touched their 52-week high.

Most Tata Group stocks finished the session in the green, including Tata Investment Corporation, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra), Tata Chemicals, Tata Elxsi, Tata Technologies, Tata Power Company, Tejas Networks, Tata Steel, Nelco, and Indian Hotels.

All eyes are on the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) for September too. Chinese stocks resumed their upward momentum in today’s session after a significant decline on Wednesday.