Benchmark indices fail to hold intraday gains, end marginally lower
Indian benchmark indices failed to hold intraday gains and ended marginally lower in a volatile session on Wednesday.
At the close on Tuesday, the Indian benchmark indices ended higher with Nifty above 19,800-mark and Sensex above 66,000-mark. The Sensex was up by 261.16 points or 0.39% at 66,428.09, and the Nifty was up by 79.70 points or 0.40% at 19,811.50.
All the sectoral indices ended in the green with the power index up 1%. FMCG, PSU Bank, metal, and oil & gas added 0.5% each.
In the currency market, Tuesday saw the Indian rupee ending flat at 83.26 against the US dollar versus Monday’s close of 83.28.
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The stock markets snapped a three-day losing streak on broad-based buying even as participants remained worried about rising tensions due to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Tuesday’s top gainers on the Nifty were BPCL, Power Grid Corporation, SBI Life Insurance, HDFC Life and Coal India, while losers included Tata Motors, L&T, UPL, IndusInd Bank and TCS.
The BSE Midcap index added 0.4% and Smallcap index gained 0.7%. The overall market capitalization of the BSE-listed firms rose to nearly Rs 323.8 lakh crore from about Rs 322.3 lakh crore in the previous session.
This made the investors richer by about Rs 1.5 lakh crore in a single session.
Interestingly, among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 400% was seen in L&T Finance Holdings, Can Fin Homes and MRF.
Some key listings touched their 52-week high on the BSE are MRF, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Lupin, Tata Consumer Products, Sun TV Network, Polycab India, Gail India, Balkrishna Industries, Welspun Corp, among others.
The market is hoping that the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict will remain confined to its current boundaries and will not spread to other countries. The US president, Joe Biden, will visit Israel on Wednesday. After that, Biden is expected to visit a few Arab countries in an apparent mission to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza from spreading.
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