New Delhi, September 23 (HS): Indian equity markets closed in the red for the third consecutive session on Monday after a highly volatile trading day. Despite intermittent buying support during the mid-session, heavy selling pressure in the closing hour pulled both the Sensex and Nifty lower.The Sensex slipped marginally by 0.07%, while the Nifty shed 0.13% at the end of the day’s trade.
Sectoral Trends
Buying activity was seen in banking, metals, PSU enterprises, and automobiles, while realty, IT, and FMCG stocks witnessed consistent selling pressure. Other major indices including capital goods, consumer durables, healthcare, oil & gas, and tech also ended in the red.The broader market mirrored the weakness. The BSE Midcap index declined 0.29% and the Smallcap index dropped 0.35%, extending the bearish sentiment.
Investor Wealth Shrinks
The overall weakness in large-, mid-, and small-cap counters wiped out investor wealth by more than ₹1.39 lakh crore. The market capitalization of BSE-listed firms fell from ₹465.06 lakh crore on Monday to ₹463.67 lakh crore, cutting deeply into investors’ portfolios.
Market Breadth
On the BSE, out of 4,311 actively traded shares, 1,808 advanced, while 2,345 declined, and 158 remained unchanged.On the NSE, out of 2,768 stocks, 1,176 closed higher, while 1,592 ended lower.Of the Sensex 30 stocks, 13 gained, while 17 ended in the red.In the Nifty 50 pack, 22 advanced and 28 declined.
Intraday Movement
The Sensex opened almost flat at 82,147.37 points but quickly surged nearly 150 points to hit 82,307.50 within the first five minutes, aided by early buying. However, selling pressure dragged the index to an intraday low of 81,776.53, a decline of 383.44 points before noon.
A strong recovery followed as fresh buying lifted the index to 82,370.38 by mid-afternoon, gaining over 590 points from its day’s low.
Despite the rebound, late-hour profit-booking wiped out the gains, leaving the Sensex to close down 57.87 points at 82,102.10.The Nifty mirrored the volatility. After opening slightly higher at 25,209, the index surged to 25,250.85 in early trade but later slid below the 25,100 level, touching an intraday low of 25,084.65.
Buyers scooped up stocks in the mid-session, pushing it to 25,261.90, before late selling forced the Nifty down by 32.85 points to close at 25,169.50.
Gainers and Losers
Top Gainers (Nifty/Sensex stocks):
IndusInd Bank (+2.85%), Axis Bank (+2.31%), JSW Steel (+1.92%), Bajaj Finance (+1.89%), Adani Enterprises (+1.78%).
Top Losers: Trent Ltd (-2.38%), Tech Mahindra (-2.23%), SBI Life Insurance (-2.06%), Hindustan Unilever (-1.94%), UltraTech Cement (-1.97%).
Despite attempts at recovery, persistent selling pressure in key sectors pulled benchmarks lower, extending the market’s losing streak to a third day.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
