SENSEX, NIFTY50 end rangebound session on a flat note; Tata Consumer, Bharti Airtel top gainers

The Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday's rangebound session on a flat note as gains in Bharti Airtel, Eternal, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid and Trent were offset by losses in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Bajaj Finance.

The SENSEX traded in a band of 584 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 22,830 and a low of 22,636 as NIFTY50 October futures and option contracts expired.

The SENSEX ended 8 points lower at 73,599 and NIFTY50 index slipped 3 points to settle at 22,750.

NIFTY50 index advanced 0.15% and NIFTY Bank index slipped 0.52% in October futures and option series.

10 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended higher led by the NIFTY Media index's 3.66% gain. NIFTY Pharma, Auto, FMCG, Metal, PSU Bank, Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices also rose between 0.6% and 1.94%.

On the other hand, NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, IT and Private Bank indices closed lower.

Broader markets outperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 1% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index surged 2.66%.

Among the individual shares, VA Tech Wabag surged as much as 9.07% after the company announced that it had secured a ‘Mega’ order from Reliance Industries (RIL) for the design, engineering, supply, installation, pre-commissioning, commissioning and performance guarantee test run (PGTR) of a desalination plant at Jamnagar, Gujarat.

Aequs dropped 18.9% to touch the session’s low of ₹196.50 per equity share as the company saw its consolidated net loss expand in the second quarter of the 2026-27 financial year (Q2 FY27).

Shares of Transformers and Rectifiers (India) (TARIL) advanced as much as 7.4% to hit an intraday high of ₹321.85 after the firm said it plans to invest ₹1,250 crore to establish three greenfield manufacturing plants at its Chiyada manufacturing complex in Gujarat.

KFin Technologies shares jumped 6.6% to hit an intraday high of ₹844 apiece after its net profit in September quarter rose 7.5% annually to ₹100 crore.

KFin Technologies rose 30% to ₹402 crore.

The company said that its overall average assets under management (AAUM) continues to grow faster than the industry.

KFintech’s AAUM growth came in at 15.1% annually versus 13.1% for the industry. Overall AAUM market share stood at 33.1%, equity AAUM growth at 14.3% and equity AAUM market share at 32.8%.

Tata Consumer Products was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 6.78% to close at ₹1,000 after its net profit in September quarter rose 16% to ₹470 crore.

Its revenue from operations advanced 14% to ₹5,661 crore and the company recorded underlying volume growth (UVG) of 11%.

Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, BSE, Trent, Maruti Suzuki, Power Grid, Eternal, BEL, Max Healthcare, Titan and Jio Financial Services also rose between 1% and 3.2%.

On the flip side, Asian Paints, Coal India, Grasim Industries, State Bank of India, TCS, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC Life and Tata Motors PV were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,455 shares ended higher while 1,103 closed lower on the NSE.