Despite positive global and domestic cues, the benchmark indices ended flat on Thursday after a roller-coaster session, as investors booked profits at higher levels ahead of the Bihar election results. Some selling by foreign portfolio investors also dampened the sentiment, market watchers said.
The overall market breadth was negative, with 2,380 losers against 1,846 gainers on the BSE. Investor wealth declined by ₹48,687 crore to ₹473.20 lakh crore. Nevertheless, in the last four sessions, the Sensex has gained 1,262.39 points (1.52%), while the Nifty has added 386.85 points (1.52%).
After opening on a positive note with a gain of 59 points, the Sensex slipped into the red (down 213 points) in the first hour of trade to hit an intraday low of 84,253.05. It then rebounded sharply to touch an intraday high of 84,919.43 — a rise of 666.38 points from the day’s low and 452.92 points above the previous close — buoyed by optimism over the end of the longest US government shutdown in history and expectations of a deeper RBI rate cut following retail inflation’s drop to a record low in October.
However, profit booking at higher levels erased most of the intra-day gains, pulling the Sensex briefly back into negative territory, before it recovered to close 12.16 points higher at 84,478.67, extending its winning streak to four sessions.
The Nifty also moved within a tight range, swinging between a low of 25,808.40 (down 67 points) and a high of 26,010.70 (up 135 points), before settling flat at 25,879.15, up 3.35 points.
“Markets traded volatile and ended nearly unchanged on the weekly expiry day, pausing after the recent strong upmove. The early optimism was underpinned by encouraging domestic macro data, particularly a sharp drop in retail inflation to a multi-year low of 0.25% in October, fuelling expectations of a near-term RBI rate cut,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP – research, Religare Broking. He added that positive global cues, including strength in US equities, supported the sentiment.
Sectorally, the trend remained mixed — consumer durables, telecom, realty, pharma, and metal indices ended higher, while PSBs, FMCG, and IT saw selling pressure. Broader markets also witnessed profit booking, with both the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices declining by up to 0.34%.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 383.68 crore and domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 3,091.87 crore, according to provisional data by the BSE.