Market Wrap, Sept 29: Indices slide for seventh session; SENSEX falls 61 pts, NIFTY50 ends at 24,635; Maruti Suzuki top laggard

The Indian stock market failed to hold gains and settled flat down on Monday, September 29, as investors remain cautious ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upcoming policy decision on the repo rate. With Monday’s close, the equity benchmark indices extended their losing streak to seven consecutive sessions.

RBI's three-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting headed by Governor Sanjay Malhotra will begin on Monday amid ongoing geopolitical tensions and the US imposing 50% tariffs on Indian merchandise. The decision will be announced on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Moody’s Ratings on Monday retained India’s sovereign credit rating at ‘Baa3’ with a stable outlook, citing the country’s strong growth prospects and resilient domestic demand, even as fiscal weaknesses and high debt affordability constraints persist.

According to exchange data, on Friday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹5,687.58 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹5,843.21 crore worth of equities.

Globally, in Asia, except for Japan, most of the indices closed higher on Monday. Japan's Nikkei dropped 1.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.84%, South Korea's KOSPI rose 1.32%, and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.89%.

On Wall Street, the US indices ended higher on Friday as they snapped a three-day losing streak after a report showed that inflation is behaving roughly as economists expected, even if it’s still high, AP reported.

The Dow Jones rose 0.65%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.59%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.44%.

As many as 3,206 stocks traded on the NSE on Monday. Out of this, only 1,186 advanced, and 1,920 declined, while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

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

A total of 107 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 53 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 122 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 75 touched their lower circuit bands on Monday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹448.10 lakh crore at the end of the session.

The volatility index India VIX slipped 0.52% to end at 11.37 levels.

Among sectors, Nifty Media led the losers with a 0.85% drop, followed by Nifty Private Bank (-0.29%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.19%), Nifty Auto (-0.18%), and Nifty Pharma (-0.15%).

On the other hand, Nifty PSU Bank (1.78%), Nifty Oil & Gas (1.35%), Nifty Realty (0.88%), Nifty Metal (0.35%), and Nifty FMCG (0.18%) ended in the green.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.07% to end at 17,548.65 levels, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at the 56,533.1 level, rising 0.27%.

Maruti Suzuki was the biggest laggard, falling 1.76%, followed by Axis Bank (-1.76%), Dr.Reddy’s (-1.13%), HDFC Life Insurance (-1.07%) and Eicher Motors (-1.04%).

On the flip side, IndusInd Bank (3.07%), Titan Company (2.70%), Hindalco Industries (1.65%), Wipro (1.55%), and State Bank of India (1.55%) were the top gainers on the 50-share index.