Market Wrap, March 27: SENSEX rises 300 pts, NIFTY50 ends above 23,500 mark despite weak global cues; auto stocks under pressure

The Indian equity market on Thursday, March 27, closed positive ahead of March F&O expiry despite mixed global cues and US President Donald Trump imposing a 25% tariff on all auto exports.

Though the indices opened weak, it recovered later with support from the broader market, the banking sector and optimism about foreign investors coming back to the equity market. The auto sector was, however, the biggest losing sector amid trade war escalations.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at 77,606.43, gaining 317.93 points, or 0.41%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index ended at 23,591.95, rising 105.10 points, or 0.45%.

The auto sector was the biggest loser among sectoral scrips, falling over 1%. Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Samvardhana Motherson were among the biggest laggards in the sector.

Shares of Tata Motors, whose key market is the US for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), also crashed over 5% at the end of the session.

Meanwhile, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued with their buying spree for the fifth straight session as they bought equities worth ₹2,240.55 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data. The domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold Indian equities worth ₹696 crore.

Led by heavy losses in Japan and South Korea, Asian shares tumbled on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei declined 1% while South Korea's KOSPI dropped 1.3%. Toyota Motor, Mazda Motor and Subaru plunged as much as 6%.

Chinese shares outperformed the region as Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1%.

The US markets closed in deep red, especially on the NASDAQ, with 2% losses as investor concerns rise on tariff impact on the economy. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 closed with 0.3% and 1% losses on Wednesday.

As many as 2,978 stocks traded on the NSE on Thursday. Out of this, 1,537 declined and 1,382 stocks advanced, while 59 scripts remained unchanged.

A total of 24 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 325 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 69 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 198 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.

Market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹412.21 lakh crore.

The volatility index India VIX slipped 1.26% to 13.30 levels.

The broader market staged a sharp recovery after opening negative. Nifty Midcap 100 settled 0.37% higher at 51,839.40, while Nifty Smallcap 100 surged 1.15% to the 16,119.85 level.

Except for Nifty Auto (-1.04%), Nifty Pharma (-0.40%) and Nifty Healthcare index (-0.22%), all the other sectoral gauges ended higher. Nifty PSU Bank was the top gainer, rising 2.5%, followed by Nifty Media (1.52%), Nifty Oil and Gas (1.36%), Nifty Realty (1.35%) and Nifty Midsmall IT and Telecom (0.13%).

Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, NTPC and Bharat Petroleum were the most contributing scrips, gaining as much as 3.13%.

On the other side, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors, Apollo Hospitals, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest losing scrips, declining as much as 5.47% on the National Stock Exchange.

Hindustan Aeronautics shares have jumped a whopping 24% to hit a high of ₹4,209 in the last nine trading sessions. During nine sessions it has only closed lower once, data from the BSE showed.

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