Market Wrap, February 1: SENSEX, NIFTY50 end flat on Budget day; consumption stocks steal the limelight

The equity benchmark indices ended flat on Saturday as market participants saw little coming in from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for retail investors and the overall markets in the Union Budget.

Amid intraday volatility, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex closed with a marginal gain of 5.39 points, or 0.01 %, to settle at 77,505.96. During the day, it hit a high of 77,899.05 and a low of 77,006.47, gyrating 892.58 points.

The NSE Nifty, however, dipped 26.25 points or 0.11% to settle at 23,482.15. Intra-day, the benchmark scaled a high of 23,632.45 and a low of 23,318.30.

The Finance Minister exempted annual income of up to ₹12 lakh from income tax and rejigged tax slabs as part of her reformist Budget to prevent any major fall in the markets. This led to buying in consumption-related sectors which averted any major drama in the indices.

Asian markets are closed on Saturday due to holidays. European markets were also closed. US markets ended lower on Friday.

On NSE, a total of 35 stocks hit their 52-week highs while 39 stocks touched their one-year lows.

Besides, 132 stocks hit their upper circuit limits and 85 touched their lower circuit bands.

Rallying for the fourth day running on Friday, the 30-share BSE benchmark ended 740.76 points, or 0.97%, higher at 77,500.57. The Nifty rallied 258.90 points, or 1.11%, to 23,508.40.

As many as 29 stocks on the NIFTY50 index slipped in the red, while the remaining 22 closed in the green.

The top five gainers on the index were Trent, ITC Hotels, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Consumers and Eicher Motors.

The top five losers were Bharat Electronics (BEL), Power Grid, Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Cipla, and Grasim.

The BSE MidCap index ended at 43,380.12, down 212.17 points, or 0.49%, while the BSE SmallCap index settled 141.41 points, or 0.28% higher at 50,332.31 levels.

All sectoral indices ended in the mix trade, with the realty, FMCG and consumer discretionary being the biggest gainers, rising as much as 3.69%.

However, the BSE Capital Goods, Power and Industrials were the biggest laggards, losing as much as 3.02%.