New Delhi, July 14 (H.S.): The domestic stock market declined for the fourth consecutive trading day, despite investors gaining approximately 96,000 crores during today’s session. Trading opened at a flat level, but selling pressure quickly drove the Sensex and Nifty indices lower. Throughout the day, attempts to increase buying could not counterbalance the downward trend, resulting in the Sensex closing down by 0.30 percent and Nifty by 0.27 percent.

Buying was robust in the pharmaceutical, realty, and PSU bank sectors, with the automobile, consumer durables, FMCG, oil and gas, and metal indices also ending in the green. In contrast, the IT, capital goods, public sector enterprises, and tech sectors experienced continuous selling. Nevertheless, the broader market showed resilience, with the BSE mid-cap index rising by 0.67 percent and the small-cap index increasing by 0.57 percent.

Despite the overall market weakness, the buying in mid-cap and small-cap stocks contributed to a significant gain in market capitalization, which rose to 457.65 lakh crores (provisional), up from 456.69 lakh crores the previous week. Active trading involved 4,340 shares on the BSE, with 2,063 closing with gains and 2,123 showing declines, while 154 remained unchanged. The NSE saw activity in 2,673 shares, with 1,318 gaining and 1,355 declining. Among the Sensex’s 30 stocks, 10 showed gains while 20 fell; on the Nifty, 22 gained and 28 lost.

The BSE’s Sensex opened with a minor gain but fell sharply as selling pressure mounted, dropping by 490.09 points by early afternoon before recovering. It closed down by 247.01 points at 82,253.46 points. The Nifty also started flat but experienced a brief rise before succumbing to selling, eventually closing down by 67.55 points at 25,082.30 points.

Top gainers included Eterno (+2.75%), Titan Company (+1.28%), and IndusInd Bank (+1.02%), while the biggest losers were Jio Financial (-2.06%), Tech Mahindra (-1.61%), and Bajaj Finance (-1.57%).

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar