Market Wrap, Feb 23: SENSEX rises 480 pts, NIFTY50 ends at 25,713 as PSU bank stocks rally; Adani Ports, Kotak Mahindra Bank top gainers

The Indian stock market ended on a positive note on Monday, February 23, led by gains in PSU bank and financial services stocks.

The IT stocks tumbled almost 2% as investors turned cautious after US President Donald Trump's tariff hike after the Supreme Court verdict.

According to exchange data, on Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹934.61 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,637.15 crore on a net basis.

Globally, most of the Asian markets were trading higher on Monday as investors waited for some much-needed clarity on US tariffs, while confidence in the entire artificial intelligence (AI) trade was set to be tested by results from tech-diva Nvidia this week, news agency Reuters reported.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 2.4% lower, while South Korea's KOSPI ended 0.64% higher and Singapore’s Straits Times was up 0.47%.

The US markets ended in green on Friday after the US Supreme Court struck down most of the president's sweeping global tariffs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.47%, NASDAQ rose 0.9%, and the S&P 500 index climbed 0.7%.

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

As many as 3,278 stocks traded on the NSE on Monday. Out of this, only 1,494 advanced, and 1,675 declined, while 109 scrips remained unchanged.

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

A total of 78 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 169 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 70 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 78 touched their lower circuit bands on Monday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at ₹467.08 lakh crore by the end of the session.

The volatility index India VIX slipped 1.35% to end at 14.17 levels.

The broader markets also ended mixed, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index rising 0.29% to close at 17,051.95, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index ended at 59,255.65, losing 0.43%.

Nifty PSU Bank was the top gainer among sectors, rising 1.36%, followed by Nifty Auto (0.83%), Nifty FMCG (0.7%), Nifty Pharma (0.56%), and Nifty Oil & Gas (0.49%).

However, Nifty IT (-1.42%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.26%), Nifty Metal (-0.23%) and Nifty Realty (-0.19%) were the losers.

On the NIFTY50 index, 35 stocks closed higher, and 16 declined by the end of the session.

Adani Ports was the most contributing stock, soaring 2.81%, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank (2.24%), HDFC Life Insurance (1.97%), Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (1.93%) and UltraTech Cement (1.6%).

On the flip side, Hindalco Industries (-2.23%), Wipro (-1.89%), Infosys (-1.86%), Tech Mahindra (-1.35%) and Cipla (-1.05%) were the biggest losing stocks on the 50-share index.