SENSEX, NIFTY50 snap four-day losing streak led by metal stocks

The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their four day losing streak on Wednesday, May 13, powered by gains in heavyweights like Tata Steel, Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints and Bharat Electronics. The SENSEX traded in a band of 1,057 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 23,583 and a low of 23,262 before closing with minor gains as investor sentiment turned cautious after rupee hit a new record low of 95.75 against the US dollar.

The NIFTY50 index ended 33 points higher at 23,413 and SENSEX advanced 50 points to close at 74,609.

Asian markets ended higher side-lining sombre trend in US markets and a spike in crude prices. Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.94%, China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.67% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.15%.

Back home, seven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended higher led by the NIFTY Metal index's 3.2% gain. NIFTY Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, FMCG and Pharma indices also rose between 0.3% and 1.7%.

On the flip side, NIFTY Auto, IT, Bank and Financial Servives indices closed lower.

Broader markets were outperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 0.8% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.31%.

Among the individual shares, Berger Paints rose as much as 9.27% to ₹533.35 per share after it posted a 27.75% rise in consolidated profit after tax to ₹334.77 crore for the March quarter of FY26 due to improvement in product mix and softening of raw material prices. The company had reported a profit of ₹262.05 crore a year back, according to a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations climbed 6.06% to ₹2,868.03 crore in Q4 FY26, compared to ₹2,704.03 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Shares of the Multi-Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) rallied as much as 3.4% to hit a lifetime high of ₹3,265 amid a surge in MCX gold and silver prices, as the government increased import duties on precious metals to 15%. Furthermore, MCX reported a fourfold increase in its profit in the latest March quarter.

Asian Paints was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock climbed 4.37% to close at ₹2,615, mirroring gains in other paint makers.

Adani Enterprises, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Bharat Electronics, Cipla, Adani Ports and JSW Steel also rose between 1.95% and 4.07%.

On the other hand, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Power Grid were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,962 shares ended higher while 1,303 closed lower on the NSE.