Market Wrap, February 17: SENSEX, NIFTY50 snap 8-day losing streak, end in green; 69 stocks hit 52-week high

After a volatile session, the equity benchmark indices on Monday, February 17, ended marginally higher, snapping an eight-day losing streak. Investors gained confidence after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India is delivering good returns to investors who are booking profits.

Investors also remained cautious; although tariff fears subsided a bit last week after US President Donald Trump decided to hold off hikes until April, there is still uncertainty about his administration's plans regarding fresh levies.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at 75,996.86, rising 57.65 points, or 0.08%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index ended at 22,959.50, up 30.25 points, or 0.13%.

During the day, the 30-share SENSEX had tanked 644.45 points or 0.84% to 75,294.76. In the last eight trading days, the BSE benchmark tanked 2,644.6 points or 3.36%, and the Nifty slumped 810 points or 3.41%.

Replying to a question on selling by foreign institutional investors (FIIs), Sitharaman on Monday said India has an environment where investments are yielding good returns.

Meanwhile, the exodus of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from the Indian equity markets continued as they pulled out ₹21,272 crore in the first two weeks of this month, driven by global tensions after the US imposed tariffs on imports.

According to the data, FPIs offloaded shares worth ₹21,272 crore from Indian equities so far this month (till February 14).

Globally, the US markets closed mixed on Friday at near all-time highs, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 closing in red and the NASDAQ closing in green with 81-point gains. The markets digested the higher inflation print and reacted more to tariff war news as President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs.

The Asian markets were trading mostly in green; the Straits Times rose 18.19 points, or 0.47%, to 3,895.69; the Jakarta Composite gained 140.67 points, or 2.08%, to 6,779.13; the KOSPI increased 16.05 points, or 0.62%, to 2,607.10; and the Taiwan Weighted added 352.72 points, or 1.5%, to 23,505.33. In comparison, the Hang Seng declined 163.29 points, or 0.72%, to 22,457.04; the Shanghai Composite weakened 7.2 points, or 0.22%, to 3,339.52; and the Nikkei 225 slipped 5.43 points, or 0.01%, to 39,144.00.

As many as 4,221 stocks traded on the BSE on Monday. Out of this, 2,733 declined and only 1,354 stocks advanced while 134 scrips remained unchanged.

A total of 69 stocks hit their 52-week highs while 907 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 13 stocks hit their upper circuit limits and only 5 touched their lower circuit bands on Monday.

As many as 34 stocks on the NIFTY50 index traded positive, while the remaining 16 closed in red. The top five gainers on the index were Adani Entertainment, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid and Adani Ports, rising as much as 3.93%.

The top five losers were Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and ICICI Bank, declining as much as 3.45% on the 50-share index.

Meanwhile, the broader market ended mixed with the BSE MidCap index ending at 39,409.66, rising 200.84 points, or 0.51%, while the BSE SmallCap index settled at 44,966.81 levels, declining 254.36 points, or 0.56%.

BSE Healthcare (1.14%) was the leading sectoral gainer, followed Consumer Durables (0.90%), Energy (0.89%), Services (0.82%) and Utilities (0.79%) while BSE Telecommunications (-1.06%), Teck (1.02%), Information Technology (-0.68%), Industrials (-0.62%) and Focused IT (-0.52%) were biggest laggards.