Stock market closing: Sensex, Nifty close the day in red, IT, metal, realty and oil and gas indices dip 1% each

Both indices, Sensex and Nifty closed the day in the red, recording marginal losses. While Sensex was down by around 581 points and was trading at 78,886.22 points at the close, Nifty was down by 0.74%, or around 180 points to close at 24,117.00 points.

Tata Motors (up by 1.63%), HDFC Life (up by 1.57%), SBI Life (up by 1.22%), Cipla (up by 1.06%) and HDFC Bank (up by 1.03%) were amongst the leading gainers during the day. On the other hand, LTI Mindtree (down by 4.09%), Grasim (down by 3.60%), Asian Paints (down by 3.37%), Apollo Hospitals (down by 3.09%) and Infosys (down by 2.94%) were amidst the day's leading laggards.

Out of the 2,783 stocks traded during the day, 1,186 saw advances, while 1,528 declined and another 69 remained unchanged. 122 stocks hit their 52-week high, while 27 stocks also hit their 52-week low price. 115 stocks remained in the upper circuit today, while 57 stocks hit the lower circuit during the day's trade.

With the exception of India VIX, which rallied 2.67% during the day, all other broad market indices closed the day in reds. Amidst sectoral indices, bank, financial services, media, pharma, private bank and healthcare recorded marginal gains, while IT, metal, realty and oil and gas indices corrected over 1% each.

In other news, RBI's MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) decided to leave the repo rate unchanged at 6.5%, making this the 9th consecutive time that the benchmark interest rates have not been hiked or slashed since February 2023.

Said Anu Aggarwal, Head – Corporate Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “RBI's decision to hold the repo rate at 6.5% for the ninth consecutive time was on expected lines amid persistent inflationary pressures with June inflation coming in at 5.1%, and food in particular running away at 8.4%. We need to watch out for Fed action in September when a rate cut is near certain which will set the stage for our own likely cut by December. RBI's commitment to inflation target of 4% while our GDP growth is on track seems the right thing to do.”

IT, Metal indices witness correction

Aditya Gaggar, director of Progressive Shares notes that amid extreme volatility on either sides, Nifty50 settled the weekly expiry day on a weak foot at 24,117.00 with a loss of 180.50 points. Among the sectors, pharma was the best performer while IT and metal corrected the most. With a marginal loss of over 0.30% ,mid and small caps outperformed the frontline Index. "The index is oscillating in a wide range where the downside seems to be protected at 23,965 (near 50DMA) while the higher side is capped at 24,330 (bearish gap zone) and a breakout on either side is a must for a clear picture", he noted.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities says that today, the benchmark indices witnessed a volatile trading session, after a roller coaster activity the Nifty ends 197 points lower while the Sensex was down by 582 points.

"Among Sectors, IT and Metal indices lost the most shed over 1.5%, whereas some buying was seen in selective media and pharma stocks. Technically, market consistently facing selling pressure at higher levels from the day highest levels Nifty/ Sensex shed over 250/800 points. A bearish candle on daily charts and double top formation on intraday charts indicates further weakness from the current levels. For the day traders intraday texture is non-directional hence level based trading would be the ideal strategy", said Chouhan.