Mumbai. The local stock market closed with a nearly stable trend on Tuesday amid volatile trading in the absence of any significant catalyst. The BSE’s 30-share index Sensex, after remaining in the positive zone for most of the time, finally closed with a marginal decline of 33.49 points or 0.04 percent at 76,456.59 points. During trading, it had risen 370.45 points or 0.48 percent to reach 76,860.53 points.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty closed at 23,264.85 points with a marginal gain of 5.65 points or 0.02 percent in volatile trading. A day before this, on Monday, the Sensex and Nifty touched their all-time high in early trade. However, later both the indices closed with a decline.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “After a significant jump, the domestic market has stabilized, and is waiting for catalytic events. With the uncertainties related to government formation being removed, the focus has again shifted to global and domestic indicators.” Among the companies included in the Sensex, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, ITC, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and JSW Steel closed with the biggest decline.
On the other hand, shares of Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Maruti, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra and UltraTech Cement closed with gains.
In the broader market, the BSE Smallcap index rose 0.95 percent, while the midcap gained 0.74 percent. Among the sectoral indices, the telecom sector gained the most by 1.93 percent and the oil and gas sector by 1.84 percent. On the other hand, metal, FMCG and durable consumer goods sectors declined.
Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President (Research) at Religare Broking Ltd, said, “The market remained limited in a range and more or less maintained the trends of Monday. After a flat start, Nifty gained momentum but it lost all its gains due to profit booking at higher levels.” In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei were in the lead while China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with a decline. European markets were trading with a decline. US markets closed in positive territory on Monday.
At the domestic level, special emphasis has been laid on policy continuity in the third term of the Narendra Modi government. With the four major ministries – Home, Defence, Finance and Foreign Affairs – being headed by the same ministers from the previous term, there is hope for stability in policies.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.32 per cent to $81.37 per barrel.
According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net purchases of shares worth Rs 2,572.38 crore on Monday. After crossing 77,000 points during early trade on Monday, the Sensex fell 203.28 points to close at 76,490.08 points on Monday. The NSE Nifty also closed at 23,259.20 points with a decline of 30.95 points.