The benchmark indices of the Indian stock market closed flat today after limited losses throughout the day. Today, significant decline in HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank was offset by gains in Reliance Industries and L&T. With Lok Sabha elections underway and results season in the Indian corporate world, investors traded cautiously today.
After opening 286 points lower early in the session today, Sensex made an intra-day high of 73,684 and low of 73,073. In this way, after a total fluctuation of 611 points, the Sensex fell by 45 points or 0.06 percent and closed at the level of 73,466. Nifty also made an intraday high of 22,368 and low of 22,185 after opening 71 points lower. In this way, after a total fluctuation of 183 points, at the end of the day Nifty closed at yesterday’s closing level without any fluctuations. In this way Nifty managed to maintain the level of 22,300. During the day, the benchmark indices traded only slightly above the previous close during the period of 12 to 1.30.
Among the Sensex stocks, Asian Paints, Ultratrack Cement, AUL, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and HCL Tech were the top gainers while Tata Motors, Power Grid, NTPC, L&T and Maruti Suzuki closed with gains. Meanwhile, Nifty Oil and Gas index closed 1.7 percent higher today. GAIL and Indraprastha Gas gained 4.6 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively in the index. Today, a total of 2,128 shares rose, 1,667 fell and 131 shares closed flat.
As far as the broader market is concerned, after yesterday’s decline, mid-cap and small-cap stocks outperformed today and the BSE mid-cap index closed 0.78 per cent higher, while the small-cap index closed 0.5 per cent higher. The percentage closed higher. Sensex fell by 0.06 points. Both the Nifty Auto and Metal indices rose 1.5 per cent, while the Nifty Private Bank index closed 0.8 per cent lower.
