The market failed to hold onto the opening gains to end on a negative note on Tueday. Nifty finished below 25,100 dragged by auto, metal and pharma. At close, Sensex was down 152.93 points or 0.19% at 81,820.12, and the Nifty was down 70.70 points or 0.28% at 25,057.30. Losses in select heavyweights, including Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, and Bajaj Auto, dragged stock market benchmarks into negative territory.

On Nifty, the gainers were ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, BPCL, Britannia Industries and Bharat Electronics. Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Bajaj Finance, Hindalco and HDFC Life were on the losing side. Over 260 stocks touched their 52-high on the BSE including Infosys, Motilal Oswal, Five-Star Business, Apar Industries, NESCO, Usha Martin, Oberoi Realty, JM Financial, Ramkrishna Forgings, Page Industries, HDFC AMC, Dixon Technologies, HCL Technologies, Coforge, MCX India, Polycab India, Lloyds Metals, Persistent Systems, Tech Mahindra, among others.

Among the sectors, Nifty Metal fell 1.44%, followed by Nifty Auto which declined 0.83% while the realty index jumped 2.05%.The Nifty Bank index closed with a mild gain of 0.17%, while the PSU Bank and Private Bank indices fell 0.21% and 0.06%, respectively.

BSE Midcap index rose 0.25%, while the BSE Smallcap index witnessed a smart gain of 1.05 %. Overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms inched up to nearly ₹463.9 lakh crore from about ₹463.6 lakh crore in the previous session.

Shares of Angel One zoomed around 8% as investors cheered the discount broker’s strong set of earnings for the quarter ended September 2024. SpiceJet shares gained as much as 3% after the company informed that it has reached a settlement. JSW Infrastructure are trading with gains of as much as 3%. Brokerage firm Nuvama Institutional Equities has initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy recommendation. Shares of Wipro fell on profit booking, as investors offloaded their holdings. HDFC Life Q2 FY25 net profit jumped 15% year-on-year to Rs 433 crore, beating Street expectations, led by healthy premium collections and investment income.

However, India’s retail inflation rose to a nine-month high in September due to higher food prices which remains a haunting factor for the investors. CPI inflation rose to 5.49% in September, higher than 3.65% in August. Weak global cues, unimpressive Q2 earnings also weighed on market sentiment.