Market Wrap, Dec 24: SENSEX falls 116 points, NIFTY50 ends at 26,142, SMIDs mixed; IndiGo top laggard, VIX down 2%

The Indian equity market ended lower after a choppy session on Wednesday, December 24, tracking weakness in Asian peers amid declines in oil and gas, IT, and pharma stocks.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,794.80 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹3,812.37 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, Asian stocks closed mixed on Wednesday as investors assessed the Bank of Japan’s meeting minutes.

Japan's Nikkei was down 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.19%, and China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.53%, while South Korea's KOSPI ended 0.21% lower.

On Wall Street, the main indices closed higher on Tuesday after stronger-than-expected economic data boosted investors’ confidence.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.16%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.46%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.57%.

Stock markets across the world will remain closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday.

Here are the key developments of Wednesday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,250 stocks traded on the NSE on Wednesday. Out of this, 1,361 advanced and 1,770 stocks declined, while 119 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 90 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 60 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 79 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 46 touched their lower circuit bands on Wednesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹472.64 lakh crore at the close of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 9.19 levels, falling 1.99%.

The broader market ended mixed, with the Nifty Midcap 100 slipping 0.6% to close at 60,451.35, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 climbed 0.28% to end at the 17,708.60 level.

Except for Nifty Media (0.44%), Nifty Realty (0.17%) and Nifty Metal (0.15%), all the other sectoral gauges ended in red.

Nifty Oil and Gas took the lead among losers, falling 0.76%, followed by Nifty IT and Pharma, each losing 0.51%, Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.48%) and Nifty PSU Bank (-0.046%).

On the NIFTY50 index, 20 stocks closed higher, and 30 declined by the end of the session.

IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation was the biggest laggard, slumping 1.55%, followed by Adani Enterprises (-1.37%), Dr Reddy’s (-1.28%), Wipro (-1.2%) and Tata Motors PV (-1.1%).

On the flip side, Trent (2.26%), Shriram Finance (1.69%), Apollo Hospitals (1.46%), Bajaj Auto (0.82%) and UltraTech Cement (0.79%) were the top gaining stocks on the 50-share index.