Sensex down 127 points at closing, Nifty below 17,400

Benchmark indices ended a lacklustre trading session on a flat note on Monday, dragged by losses in heavyweights such as Reliance and HDFC Bank.

The market opened on a negative note amid mixed global cues, moving in a narrow range through the day. Losses in financials dragged indices while IT and metals gained focus.

The BSE Sensex closed at 58,177.76, down 127.31 points or 0.22 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 58,314.64 and a low of 57,944.63. The Nifty 50 closed at 17,355.30, down 13.95 points or 0.08 per cent. It hit an intraday high of 17,378.35 and a low of 17,269.15.

Breadth remains positive

The breadth of the market remained positive, with as many as 1,719 stocks advancing on the BSE, compared to 1,544 stocks that were declined while 205 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 398 stocks hit the upper circuit compared to the 239 stocks locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 255 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 25 touched a 52-week low.

Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities said, “Domestic equities traded in rangebound today amid mixed cues from global equities. Notably, strong rebound in IT and metal counters arrested significant fall due to selling pressure in heavyweight financials and Reliance Industries.”

“A sustained expectations of strong September quarter earnings led investors to lap-up IT names. Further, delay of launch of smartphone by two months due to Chip shortage led profit booking in Reliance Industries. Notably, midcap and smallcap stocks remain in investors’ radar today with Nifty midcap and smallcap indices extending gains mainly on improving prospects of sustainable earnings recovery,” added Modi.

Coal India, Hindalco, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel and BPCL were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Reliance, ICIC Bank, SBI Life, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Bank were the top laggards.

The Reliance Industries stock witnessed profit-booking on Monday after the company announced the delay of its upcoming "ultra affordable" phone JioPhone Next. The phone has been developed jointly by Reliance's telecom arm Jio and Google. The shares of RIL were down 2.30 per cent at closing on the NSE.

S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities said, "Indices remained rangebound in trade today after a stellar run in Index stocks during the past few weeks making India one of the best-performing markets globally last month. Action however was seen in select Small & Midcap names as consolidation in several sectors have benefited select companies who have used the Pandemic to gain share. Market Participants were however picking their spaces as valuations are pricey with several stocks trading at 3.5x price to book."

Metals, IT in focus

On the sectoral front, while financials and Oil & Gas stocks dragged, metals, IT and realty gained. Pharma and Healthcare stocks also recorded gains.

Nifty Metal was up 1.29 per cent. Nifty IT was up 0.94 per cent at closing while Nifty Realty was up 0.65 per cent. Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index were up 0.33 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services were down 0.58 per cent and 0.19 per cent, respectively. Nifty Private Bank was down 0.53 per cent while Nifty PSU Bank ended 0.41 per cent lower. Nifty Oil & Gas was down 0.33 per cent.

Broader indices

Broader indices closed higher, outperforming the benchmarks.

Nifty Midcap 50 was up 0.45 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.59 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 0.32 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.80 per cent.

The volatility index rose 0.59 per cent to 14.03.

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