SENSEX, NIFTY50 trade on a flat note; IT stocks gain for a fifth straight session

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading on a flat note on Thursday, July 30, ahead of monthly expiry of SENSEX futures and option contracts as gains in information technology heavyweights like Infosys, Tech Mahindra, TCS, HCL Technologies and Sun Pharma were offset by losses in ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Eternal and Axis Bank.

As of 9:24 am, the SENSEX was up 39 points at 77,694 and NIFTY50 index advanced 20 points to 24,270.

Asian markets were trading on a mixed note as investors turned cautious after US Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates on hold while crude oil was hovering around $86 per barrel as fighting in the Middle East escalated.

US carried out fresh strikes in Iran on Wednesday, the US military said, further intensifying a five-month-old war that was already expanding beyond its main fronts to embroil additional countries in ‌the region, news agency Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.07%, China's Shanghai declined 0.61%, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 1.12% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.2%.

Nine of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading higher led by the NIFTY IT index's 1.9% gain. IT shares rose for a fifth straight session on Thursday and in the last five sessions it has advanced over 11%.

NIFTY Auto, FMCG, Metal, Pharma, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.3% and 1%.

On the flipside, banking financial services and consumer durables shares were facing selling pressure.

Broader markets were also facing selling pressure as NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.32% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index fell 0.22%.

Among the individual shares, Syrma SGS rose as much as 6.21% to hit an intraday high of ₹1,427 after the electronics manufacturing services company reported a more than twofold jump in its consolidated profit after tax to ₹105.69 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, driven by exports, original design business and operational efficiencies, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

The company had posted profit after tax of ₹49.9 crore a year ago.

Waaree Energies fell as much as 6.4% to ₹2,563 after the solar photovoltaic manufacturer's Q1 FY27 consolidated net profit stood at ₹891.87 crore, up 15.39% from ₹772.89 crore in the period ended June 2025.

Its revenue from operations rose 79.22% YoY to ₹7,931.79 crore in the April-June period of the current fiscal year, compared to ₹4,425.83 crore a year back.

Wipro was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 2.83% to ₹189. Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, HCL Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle India, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consumer Products and Sun Pharma also rose between 0.73% and 2.6%.

On the flip side, Adani Ports, Shriram Finance, Jio Financial Services, Bharat Electronics, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Eternal, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Life were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,610 shares were declining while 1,269 were advancing on the NSE.