Market Wrap, Dec 23: SENSEX flat, NIFTY50 at 26,177 as IT stocks drag; Coal India shares jump 4%, Infosys top loser

After a volatile session, the Indian equity market ended flat on Tuesday, December 23, mirroring trends across Asian peers, as IT stocks weighed down while metal and media stocks rallied.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹457.34 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹4,058.22 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets closed higher for a second straight session on Tuesday following overnight gains on Wall Street. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.08% each, while China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.07% and South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.28%.

On Wall Street, the US stocks closed higher to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week on Monday, buoyed partly by a continued rebound by technology stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.47%, the S&P 500 advanced 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.52%.

Here are the key developments of Tuesday’s session that you need to know

As many as 3,264 stocks traded on the NSE on Tuesday. Out of this, 1,835 advanced and 1,321 declined, while 108 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicates that the market's breadth is favourable towards advances.

A total of 92 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 51 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 84 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 46 touched their lower circuit bands on Tuesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at ₹473.47 lakh crore by the end of the session.

The volatility index India VIX slumped 3.07% to close at 9.38 levels.

The NIFTY Midcap 100 index ended flat at 60,816.10 levels, while the NIFTY Smallcap 100 gauge settled 0.37% higher at 17,658.80 levels.

Among sectors, Nifty IT took the lead among losers, declining 0.8% followed by Nifty PSU Bank (-0.34%), Nifty Pharma and Nifty Consumer Durables,0.8%, each losing 0.23%, and Nifty Realty (-0.23%).

On the contrary, Nifty Media (0.8%), Nifty Metal (0.54%), Nifty FMCG (0.52%), Nifty Auto (0.02%) and Nifty Oil and Gas (0.01%) were the top gainers.

On Tuesday, 26 stocks declined on the NIFTY50 index, while 24 settled in green.

Infosys was the biggest laggard, falling 1.48%, followed by Bharti Airtel (-1.15%), Adani Ports (-1.05%), Sun Pharma (-0.93%) and Tech Mahindra (-0.92%).

On the flip side, Coal India (3.73%), Shriram Finance (2.42%), ITC (1.53%), UltraTech Cement (1.3%) and Tata Motors PV (0.96%) were the biggest-gaining contributing stocks on the 50-share index.