SENSEX, NIFTY50 end marginally higher on a weekly expiry day; IT stocks rise

On Thursday, Indian benchmark indices opened at record highs but saw a pullback, ultimately ending with modest gains. The SENSEX managed to close above the 80,000 level for the first time, while the NIFTY closed above the 24,300 mark on the weekly expiry day. Nifty Bank showed resilience, recovering nearly 280 points from its lower levels to finish in the green, closing above the 53,100 level. India VIX slipped below the 13 mark, down by 2.65%

Top Gainers & Losers

In the NIFTY50 space, 40 stocks advanced, 9 stocks declined, and one stock remained unchanged. The major gainers were Tata Motors (+2.75%), HCL Tech (+2.63%), ICICI Bank (+2.53%), Sun Pharma (+1.83%), and TCS (+1.38%) were the major gainers. The laggards included HDFC Bank (-2.30%), Bajaj Finance (-2.06%), Adani Enterprises (-0.68%), Wipro (-1.25%) and Tech Mahindra (-1.20%).

Index Movers

From the NIFTY50 index, the main drivers were ICICI Bank (+48.31 pts), Infosys (+17.61 pts), TCS (+12.54 pts), Tata Motors (+10.7 pts) and HCL Tech (+9.34 pts). The main laggards were HDFC Bank (-69.26 pts), Bajaj Finance (-9.44 pts), L&T (-8.64 pts), Adani Enterprises (-2.79 pts) and UltraTech Cement (-2.67 pts).

Broader Indices

The broader markets outperformed the frontline index for the second straight day. The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed up by 0.58%, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.49%. The market breadth was strong today as advancing stocks outnumbered declining stocks.

Sectoral Indices

Today, most of the sectoral indices closed in green. The top three gainers were Nifty Pharma (+1.39%), Nifty Healthcare Index (+1.28%), and Nifty IT (+1.10%). The top three laggards were Nifty Media (-0.09%), Nifty FMCG (-0.21%), and Nifty Metal (-0.03%).

Global Markets

The key Asian benchmark indices concluded Thursday’s trading session on a positive note. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.81%, the Kospi index rose by 1.09%, and Hang Seng added 0.28%. Shanghai was the only index that closed down by 0.84%.

At 4:01 PM, the Dow Jones Futures were trading up by 73 points at 39,709.