The equity benchmark indices on Thursday, February 13, fell for the seventh consecutive session even as they traded with decent gains during the intraday trade.
During the session, healthy buying was witnessed across the board; however, the market could not sustain the gains and eventually settled in the red.
At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX stood at 76,138.97, falling 32.11 points, or 0.04%, while the NSE’s NIFTY50 index ended at 23,031.40, down 13.85 points, or 0.06%.
Falling crude oil prices supported domestic sentiments on Thursday. Oil prices dropped on expectations a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia would mean the end of sanctions that have disrupted supply flows.
Further, investor’s sentiments also remained upbeat as India’s consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation fell to a five-month low of 4.31% in January from 5.22% in December, thus raising hopes for another repo rate cut by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) during its April meeting.
On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in green despite raising fears of a brewing global trade war and its impact on inflation.
Asian markets were trading mostly in green; Hang Seng advanced 522.51 points or 2.33% to 22,380.43; Shanghai Composite strengthened 7.24 points or 0.22% to 3,353.63, KOSPI increased 30.38 points or 1.18% to 2,578.77, Nikkei 225 surged 553.23 points or 1.4% to 39,516.93 and Taiwan Weighted added 109.66 points or 0.47% to 23,399.41.
However, Jakarta Composite plunged 60.04 points or 0.91% to 6,585.74, Straits Times fell 0.31 points or 0.01% to 3,874.31.
The US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday.
Here are the key developments of Thursday’s session that you need to know.
Market statistics
As many as 4,074 stocks traded on the BSE on Thursday. Out of this, 2,089 declined and only 1,858 stocks advanced while 127 scrips remained unchanged.
A total of 54 stocks hit their 52-week highs while 238 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, only 8 stocks hit their upper circuit limits and only 3 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.
Top gainers and losers
As many as 23 stocks on the NIFTY50 index traded positive, while the remaining 27 closed in red. The top five gainers on the index were Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Cipla, rising as much as 3.12%.
The top five losers were Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys and Larsen and Toubro (L&T), declining as much as 4.93% on the 50-share index.
Broader market
The broader market ended mixed with the BSE MidCap index ending at 40,869.18, rising 27.72 points, or 0.07%, while the BSE SmallCap index settled at 47,177.51 levels, tanking 202.68 points, or 0.43%.
Sector watch
BSE Focus IT (-0.98%), Information Technology (-0.93%), FMCG (-0.66%), Teck (-0.64%) and Oil and Gas (-0.34%) were the biggest sectoral losers while BSE Metal (1.26%), Realty (0.72%), Telecommunications (0.25%), Financial Services (0.21%), and Commodities (0.19%) were biggest gainers.