SENSEX, NIFTY50 rangebound; metal stocks outperform, realty shares decline

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading in a narrow range note on Friday, January 23, as losses in ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, InterGlobe Aviation, Power Grid and State Bank of India were offset by buying interest in HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Reliance Industries.

The SENSEX was trading in a band of 324 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,348 and a low of 25,249.

As of 9:23 am, SENSEX was up 71 points at 82,376 and NIFTY50 index advanced 24 points to 25,316.

Asian markets were trading higher after Bank of Japan kept its interest rates unchanged and raised its projections for growth and inflation on hopes of more financial support from the government. BOJ kept overnight call rate at 0.75%.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.7%, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 1%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.35% and China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.3%.

US market ended higher on Thursday as geopolitical tensions eased and US economy grew by 4.4% in the previous quarter, the fastest in two years. Further, the latest GDP print suggests policymakers could exercise restraint in easing the monetary policy.

Dow Jones advanced 0.63%, S&P 500 index rose 0.55% and tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0.91%.

Precious metals made new records in the international markets as the ‌dollar traded around the lows of the year. Gold rallied for a fifth day, gaining 0.3% to $4,951.47 per ounce, while silver was up 1.7% at $97.85 per ounce, according to a report by Reuters.

Sectoral picture

Nine of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by NIFTY Metal index's nearly 1% gain. NIFTY IT, FMCG, Pharma, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices also rose between 0.2%-0.5%.

On the flipside, real estate, financial services, media and select PSU bank shares were facing selling pressure.

Broader markets were trading on a flat note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.13% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.05%.

Among the individual shares, Mphasis declined as much as 2% to hit an intraday low of ₹2,755 after it posted a 3.3% increase in consolidated net profit to ₹442.18 crore in the third quarter of FY26, up from ₹427.80 crore in the same period of FY25.

The company's revenue from operations rose 12.3% in the December quarter to ₹4,002.57 crore, as compared to ₹3,561.33 crore in the year-ago period.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Dr Reddy's Labs was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 1.77% to close at ₹1,239. Asian Paints, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer Products, Hindustan Unilever and Wipro also rose between 0.93%-1.33%.

On the other hand, IndiGo was among the top losers in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell as much as 3.8% to hit an intraday low of ₹4,722.50 after its net profit in December quarter declined 77% to ₹550 crore from ₹2,449 crore in the same period last year.

The sharp decline in profit came on account of exceptional expense of ₹1,546 crore in October-December period.

The exceptional expense included ₹969 crore set aside for implementation of new labour codes and ₹577 crore for operational disruptions it faced in December, IndiGo said in a regulatory filing.

Eternal, Adani Ports, SBI Life, Power Grid, HDFC Life, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,673 shares were advancing while 1,593 were declining on the BSE.