Nifty, Sensex End Mixed After Final-Hour Decline; RIL, L&T Drag: Market Wrap

The Indian benchmark equity indices shed their early gains to settle mixed on Wednesday on bank futures expiry day as Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd. dragged.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 41.90 points or 0.18%, lower at 23,516, while the S&P BSE Sensex ended 36.45 points or 0.05%, higher at 77,337.59, marking the highest closing level since its inception. During the day, the Nifty rose as much as 0.45% to a record high of 23,664 and the Sensex rose 0.71% to a fresh high of 77,851.63.

The Nifty Bank retained its gains to settle at the historic level of 51,398.05 on Wednesday. The index scaled a high of 51,957.00 in the morning.

The India Volatility Index settled 5.77% higher at 13.71 after falling to over a one-month low. The index slumped 10.30% to 11.63, the lowest level since April 29, in the morning.

There has been a likely chase towards sectors that can be potential budget beneficiaries, with buying seen across agriculture, power, capital goods and infrastructure sectors, according to Jaykrishna Gandhi of Emkay Global Financial Services. "We expect markets to remain at elevated levels and believe some rotation could be seen in Reliance, IT, pharma and banking."

Reliance Industries Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Titan Co., and ITC Ltd. weighed on the Nifty the most.

HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. led the gains.

Eight out of the 12 sectors on the NSE declined, with the Nifty Realty declining the most.

The broader markets underperformed as the BSE MidCap and the SmallCap settled 0.91% and 0.58% lower, respectively.

Seventeen out of the 20 sectors on the BSE declined. Realty was the top loser, while Bankex rose the most.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of the sellers as 2,223 stocks declined, 1,647 advanced and 104 remained unchanged on the BSE.