Market recovers morning losses; NIFTY50 and SENSEX trade flat; smallcap indices jump over 1%

Indian equity benchmarks continued to experience selling in the mid-market session, with both Sensex and Nifty lower by over 0.2% each, amid persistent FII selling, continuing uncertainty around tariffs and ongoing geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. However, the broader market outperformed the benchmark indices as NIFTY smallcap 100 jumped over 1% as compared to declines in the benchmark indices.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, as Japan's consumer sentiment decreased unexpectedly in February to the lowest level in almost two years. The survey data from the Cabinet Office showed that the seasonally adjusted consumer confidence index weakened to 35.0 in February from 35.2 in January. Further, the latest reading was the lowest since March 2023, when it was 33.7.

The SENSEX traded at 72912.30, down by 173.64 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 72633.54 and 73029.84. 10 stocks were advancing against 20 stocks declining on the index.

The market breadth went in favour of advances as 1,682 stocks traded in green against 1,021 in red. Sectorally, NIFTY media (+2.2%), PSU Bank(+1.6%), Healthcare (+1.1%) were some of the top sectoral gainers and Auto (-1.2%) FMCG (-0.99%) and IT (-0.91%) were top three losers for the day.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Capital Goods up by 1.26%, PSU up by 1.24%, Industrials up by 1.18%, Basic Materials up by 0.46% and Healthcare up by 0.46%, while FMCG down by 0.78%, Auto down by 0.74%, TECK down by 0.50%, Telecom down by 0.41% and Realty down by 0.32% were the top losing indices on BSE.

Meanwhile, government data shows that India's power consumption grew marginally to 131.54 billion units (BU) in February, higher than 127.34 BU in the year-ago period. However, the two figures are not comparable, as 2024 was a leap year.

The NIFTY50 traded at 22070.20, down by 49.10 points or 0.22% after trading in a range of 21964.60 and 22104.25. 18 stocks were advancing against 32 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were SBI up by 2.70%, Bharat Electronics up by 2.30%, Trent up by 1.67%, BPCL up by 1.58% and TCS up by 1.35%. On the flip side, Bajaj Auto down by 3.06%, Bajaj Finserv down by 2.45%, Nestle down by 2.22%, Hero MotoCorp down by 2.14% and Titan down by 1.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Hang Seng declined 39.72 points or 0.17% to 22,966.55, Jakarta Composite plunged 87.12 points or 1.35% to 6,432.54, Straits Times fell 12.75 points or 0.33% to 3,896.17, KOSPI dropped 2.97 points or 0.12% to 2,529.81, Nikkei 225 slipped 541.82 points or 1.45% to 37,243.65 and Taiwan Weighted lost 159.37 points or 0.71% to 22,596.88, while Shanghai Composite strengthened 3.6 points or 0.11% to 3,320.53.