Market Wrap, March 13: Indices erase early gains; NIFTY50 fails to hold 22,500 level, SENSEX settles below 74K mark

Indian bourses on Thursday, March 13, erased their early gains and settled lower following Asian markets, while underperformance by the broader market also weighed on the main equity indices.

Market investors also remained cautious on further developments of the ongoing trade war.

The NIFTY50 index failed to hold the 22,500-level, while the SENSEX also slipped below the 74,000-mark by the end of the session.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at 73,828.91, falling 200.85 points, or 0.27%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index ended at 22,397.20, declining 73.30 points, or 0.33%.

The market breadth was largely in favour of negative, as 1,894 stocks declined on the NSE out of 2,948 stocks traded during the session.

India’s February inflation data numbers also failed to cheer the market sentiment. Retail inflation in India slipped to a seven-month low of 3.61% in February 2025, down from 4.26% in January. The year-on-year inflation rate, based on the all-India Consumer Price Index (CPI), recorded a provisional 3.61% for February 2025 compared to the same month last year. This is the lowest headline inflation since July 2024.

Subdued food prices in February pulled down retail inflation below the Reserve Bank of India's median target of 4%, while the country's manufacturing sector pushed the key factory output index to 5% in January, the government data showed on Wednesday.

The Indian stock exchanges will remain shut on Friday, March 14, 2025, as people across the country will celebrate Holi.

Globally, Asian shares were mostly lower on Thursday despite a rebound on Wall Street fuelled by an encouraging update on US consumer prices.

Chinese markets slipped as Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 0.7% to 23,426.80, while the Shanghai Composite index lost 0.4% to 3,357.02.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 gained 0.5% to 37,014.82. South Korea's Kospi edged 0.1% lower, to 2,573.05. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.4% to 7,756.10.

Taiwan's Taiex shed 0.4%, and Bangkok's SET slipped 0.1%.

In the US, the NASDAQ and S&P 500 snapped the two-day correction to close nearly 1% higher on Wednesday on a softer-than-expected inflation print. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82.55 points, or 0.20%, to 41,350.93; the S&P 500 gained 27.23 points, or 0.49%, to 5,599.30; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 212.36 points, or 1.22%, to 17,648.45.

As many as 2,948 stocks traded on the NSE on Thursday. Out of this, 1,894 declined and 984 stocks advanced, while 70 scrips remained unchanged.

A total of 10 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 268 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 58 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 133 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, was 3.01% lower at 13.28 levels.

The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices on Thursday. Nifty Midcap 100 slipped 0.75% at the 48,125.10 level, while Nifty Smallcap 100 settled at 14,897.35, falling 0.98%.

Except for Nifty PSU Bank (0.43%) and Nifty Bank (0.01%), all the other sectoral indices closed with losses. Nifty Realty (-1.83%) was the biggest falling sector, followed by Nifty Media (-1.50%), Nifty Midsmall Financial Services (-1.22%), Nifty Financial Services Ex-Bank (-1.15%) and Nifty Auto (-1.10%).

Only 12 stocks on the NIFTY50 index traded in green, while 38 closed in the negative territory. The biggest losers on the index were Shriram Finance, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, HDFC Life and IndusInd Bank, tumbling as much as 2.66%.

On the flip side, the top five gainers were Bharat Electronics, State Bank of India, Cipla, ICICI Bank and Power Grid, gaining as much as 1.18% on the 50-share index.

On March 11, PB Fintech informed in a regulatory filing that it has plans to infuse ₹696 crore in its wholly owned subsidiary PB Healthcare Services in the next financial year to grow its business.

State-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL have earned a total of ₹12,984.86 crore from the monetisation of land, buildings, towers and fibre since 2019, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

This development came after RBI’s decision to grant a shorter-than-expected tenure extension to CEO Sumant Kathpalia, which contributed to the stock’s sharp decline.