The stock market remained under pressure today amid selling seen across the sectors, barring metal and banks.At close, the Sensex was down 150.68 points or 0.18 per cent at 84,628.16, and the Nifty 50 was down 29.85 points or 0.11 per cent at 25,936.20. BSE Midcap and smallcap indices ended almost flat.
Sensex lost over 550 points in intraday trade to hit the day’s low of 84,219.39, and finally ended the session 151 points or 0.18 per cent down at 84,628.Nifty 50 tanked 150 points to its lowest intraday level of 25,810.05, but closed the day at 25,936, falling 30 points or 0.11 per cent.
The broader markets outperformed, as the BSE Midcap index gained 0.12 per cent and the BSE Smallcap pack added 0.06 per cent.Among the sectors, metals and PSU banks emerged as the top sectoral winners, rising over 1.2 per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty IT lost the most, declining 0.74 per cent. Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG were also among the laggards. Nifty Bank eked out a gain of 0.17 per cent.
Twenty-one stocks on the Nifty 50 closed in the green, while on the flip side, 29 stocks closed lower.Those in green were JSW Steel and Tata Steel, rising the most. The metal stocks gained 2.82 per cent each. SBI Life (up 1.62 per cent), L&T (up 1.47 per cent), and HDFC Life (up 1.32 per cent) were among the other top gainers.
Bajaj Finserv, with a 1.48 per cent decline, was the worst performer. Trent, Coal India, Tech Mahindra, and ONGC were other Nifty 50 stocks that ended deep in the red, losing over 1 per cent each.
A total of 1,910 stocks advanced while 2,246 counters declined in trade favouring sellers, and 176 stocks remained unchanged.
Nearly 160 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE. These included City union Bank, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Indian Bank, SBI Life Insurance, Laurus Labs, HBL Engineering, Hindalco Industries, PNB, Federal Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, SBI, Bharti Airtel, Canara Bank, Paytm, Grasim Industries, and Cummins India, among others.
On Nifty Bank, Indian Bank shares gained nearly 1.5 per cent to trade at Rs 838.05 apiece. union Bank of India shares gained over 1 per cent while Bank of Maharashtra and Punjab National Bank (PNB) shares gained nearly 1 per cent each.
State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB), Canara Bank, and UCO Bank shares were trading in the green with marginal gains. Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) shares, however, bucked the trend to trade in the red with marginal losses.
