Benchmark indices on Thursday witnessed another highly volatile session, extending the losing streak to the seventh day in a row. This is the longest such period of fall in three months.

At close, the BSE Sensex was down 32.11 points or 0.04% at 76,138.97, and the Nifty 50 was down 13.85 points or 0.06% at 23,031.40.

Advertisement

Indices got a boost from a broad-based buying across sectors but saw profit-booking in the second half to close the day on a flat note. On the sectoral front, media, metal, pharma, and realty rose 0.5-1%, while auto, FMCG, IT, consumer durables, and PSU Bank shed 0.3-1%.

Nifty Pharma emerged as the top performer, gaining 1.35%, with 15 out of 20 constituents ending the session in the green.

Realty stocks bounced back strongly during the session, causing the Nifty Realty index to end the session with a gain of 0.81%.

The Midcap index ended flat, while the smallcap index shed 0.4%. The Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell by 0.37% to 15,973, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index ended the day with a gain of 0.25%, closing at 50,881.

On the Nifty 50, the top gainers were Bajaj Finserv (3.39%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (3.10%), Tata Steel (3.00%), Bajaj Finance (2.37%), and Cipla (1.58%).

On the losing side were Adani Enterprises (4.62%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (1.54%), Hero Motocorp (1.47%), Infosys (1.07%), and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (1.03%).

Bank Nifty concluded the day at 49479.45, after reaching an intraday high of 49836.1 and a low of 49276.1.

Over 230 stocks touched their 52-week low on BSE, including FDC, KIOCL, Varun Beverages, PI Industries, Balaji Amines, SKF India, Bharat Forge, Colgate Palmolive, Godrej Consumer, Cera Sanitary, Hero MotoCorp, Alembic Pharma, and Shoppers Stop, among others.

Among the individual performers, shares of SBI Cards & Payment Services rose 6% to Rs 866. Vodafone India rebounded, climbing 7% to Rs 8.99.

Shares of Jubilant Foodworks Limited traded 3.76% higher at Rs 665.10 after the release of their Q3FY25 results.

Godrej Industries Ltd too rallied as much as 10% to Rs 893 amid strong results for the December quarter.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) continue to withdraw from the stock market. In the previous trading session, they pulled out another ₹4,969 crore, taking their total selling in February to ₹22,098 crore.

Modest Q3 earnings, stretched valuations, and a slowing economy are weighing on investor confidence leading to the fall in the market.

Further, Donald Trump’s tariff threats and the US Federal Reserve’s pause in the rate cut cycle have boosted US bond yields.