New Delhi, September 4(HS): The domestic equity markets witnessed high volatility on Thursday amid weak global cues and profit-booking at higher levels. Despite starting the session on a strong note—driven in part by optimism over GST system reforms—both Sensex and Nifty gave up most of their early gains as selling pressure emerged. By the end of the trading session, however, the indices managed to close marginally in the green. The Sensex added 0.19% and the Nifty gained 0.08%.
Buying interest was visible in automobile, FMCG, and consumer durables stocks, while heavy selling weighed on PSU banks, IT, and energy counters. Realty, metals, media, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, capital goods, oil & gas, public sector enterprises, and technology indices also closed in the red. The broader market remained under pressure, with BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices slipping 0.60%.
Despite the benchmark indices holding ground, persistent selling in mid- and small-cap counters wiped out about ₹1.43 lakh crore of investor wealth. The market capitalization of BSE-listed firms fell to ₹451.33 lakh crore (provisional) from ₹452.76 lakh crore on Wednesday.
Trading activity remained brisk, with 4,280 stocks active on the BSE—1,812 advancing, 2,318 declining, and 150 flat. On the NSE, out of 2,786 traded shares, 1,043 closed with gains and 1,743 with losses. Among Sensex constituents, 11 stocks ended higher while 19 ended lower. Within the Nifty-50 pack, 19 stocks advanced and 31 declined.
The Sensex opened with a robust gain of 888.96 points at 81,456.67. However, profit-booking soon dragged the index down by over 400 points. After a brief rebound, renewed selling pulled the index sharply lower. By 3 PM, it had slipped nearly 848 points from the day’s peak to 80,608.94. Late-hour buying ahead of settlement helped recover some losses, and the Sensex finally closed 150.30 points higher at 80,718.01.
The Nifty opened with a strong jump of 265.70 points at 24,980.75 but fell immediately, dropping over 130 points in the first five minutes to 24,847.25. Despite intermittent recovery attempts, the index remained under pressure and at one stage slipped more than 270 points from its peak to 24,708.20. A late rebound helped the index recover over 25 points from the lows, ending with modest gains of 19.25 points at 24,734.30.
Top Sensex gainers were Mahindra & Mahindra (+5.15%), Bajaj Finance (+4.29%), Apollo Hospitals (+2.12%), Bajaj Finserv (+1.84%) and Nestlé India (+1.49%). The top laggards included Tata Consumer Products (-3.02%), HDFC Life (-2.86%), Wipro (-1.84%), Maruti Suzuki (-1.78%) and IndusInd Bank (-1.73%).
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
