Benchmark indices remained muted throughout the session to end flat on Thursday. FMCG and IT stocks dragged down Nifty, financials names provided some support.

At close, the Sensex was down 16.82 points or 0.02 per cent at 80,065.16, and the Nifty was down 36.10 points or 0.15 per cent at 24,399.40. Today marked the fourth consecutive day of losses for the indices.

On Nifty, negative territory was led by HUL, which experienced a decline of nearly 6 per cent. Other notable laggards included SBI Life Insurance, Hindalco Industries, Nestle India, Bajaj Auto, Britannia Industries, ITC, Tata Consumer, Maruti Suzuki and HDFC Life Insurance, all of which recorded losses exceeding 1 per cent.

Top gainers were Ultratech Cement (up 2.70 per cent), Shriram Finance (up 1.48 per cent), Titan Company (up 1.29 per cent), Grasim Industries (up 1.27 per cent), and Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.18 per cent). Mid and small-cap stocks were unable to maintain their momentum following a strong rebound in the previous trading session.

Nifty FMCG index ended in the red during today’s session, pushing the index down by 2.83 per cent to 58,396. This decline brought the index to its lowest level since early July. Since reaching an all-time high of 66,438, the index has now corrected by 12 per cent.

Among other sectoral indices, the Nifty Realty index fell by 1.13 per cent, while the Nifty Auto index continued its decline, dropping by 0.52 per cent. Banking stocks continued their upward momentum, driven primarily by public sector banks. Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, and State Bank of India gained as much as 3 per cent.

Tata Communications share price rallied after the company unveiled AI infra with NVIDIA-accelerated computing.Piramal Pharma shares climbed 18 per cent a day after the drugmaker reported solid earnings for the July-September quarter, marked by a steep surge in its net profit

KPIT Tech shares dropped by as much as 15 per cent after JPMorgan lowered its target price to Rs 1,900 per share. Dr Lal PathLabs share price slipped over 6 per cent amid profit booking.