Market Wrap, August 19: NIFTY50 settles at 24,980, SENSEX rises 370 points as auto stocks rally; Tata Motors, Adani Ports top gainers

The Indian stock market closed with gains on Tuesday, August 19, despite weak global cues as auto and oil and gas stocks rallied. The inflow of foreign funds also boosted the investor’s sentiment.

Both NIFTY50 and SENSEX had touched an intraday high of 25,012.65 and 81,755.88, respectively. The broader market, however, outperformed the main equity indices.

Rallies in heavyweight stocks like Reliance Industries, Adani Ports and Adani Enterprises also added to the sentiment.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased equities worth ₹550.85 crore and ₹4,103.81 crore, respectively, on a net basis.

On the global front, most of the Asian stocks were seen subdued after Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukraine’s president and European leaders ended with a call for a summit with Russia.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.32%, South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.82%, and Japan's Nikkei also slipped 0.27%. The Shanghai Composite closed marginally lower by 0.02%.

On Wall Street, indices closed almost flat on Monday as investors eyed corporate earnings reports and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 34.30 points, or 0.08%, to end at 44,911.82; the S&P 500 fell 0.65 points, or 0.01%, to close at 6,449.15; while the Nasdaq Composite marginally rose 6.80 points, or 0.03%, to settle at 21,629.77.

As many as 3,078 stocks traded on the NSE on Tuesday. Out of this, 2,050 advanced and 939 declined, while 89 scrips remained unchanged.

This, however, indicates that the market breadth favoured advances.

A total of 77 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 40 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 118 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 54 touched their lower circuit bands on Tuesday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹451.12 lakh crore.

The volatility index India VIX declined 4.45% to 11.79 levels.

Except for Nifty Pharma (-0.34%), all the other sectors closed with gains on Tuesday.

Nifty Oil and Gas (1.66%) soared for the second session, taking the top position among gainers. Nifty Media (1.34%), Nifty Auto (1.31%), Nifty FMCG (1.05%) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.98%) were the other sectors that gained the most.

The NIFTY Midcap 100 index gained 0.97%, ending at 57,664.65 levels, while the NIFTY Smallcap 100 gauge settled 0.70% higher at 17,914.30 levels.

Tata Motors was the most contributing stock, jumping 3.62%, followed by Adani Ports (3.22%), Reliance Industries (2.84%), Hero MotoCorp (2.66%) and Bajaj Auto (2.12%).

On the contrary, Dr Reddy’s (-1.4%), Cipla (-1.15%), Hindalco Industries (-1.03%), Bajaj Finserv (-0.98%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (-0.77%) were the biggest laggards.