Sensex, Nifty End Little Changed As Losses In M&M Weigh Gains In ITC: Market Wrap

The Indian benchmark indices recovered some of its early losses to end little changed on Thursday as ITC Ltd. and Oil & Natural Gas Corp. led gains, while Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and Bajaj Finance Ltd. dragged.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 8.50 points or 0.04%, lower at 24,315.95, and the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 27.43 points or 0.03%, lower at 79,897.34.

During the day, the Nifty fell as much as 0.54% to 24,193.75, and the Sensex declined 0.58% to 79,464.38.

"Opening gains did not last long as the index quickly erased all its gains to retest its previous day's lower levels," Aditya Gaggar, director, Progressive Share Brokers, said.

In the mid-session, select heavyweights helped the Nifty recover, Gaggar said. "Our view on the index remains the same—as long as the index holds a level of 24,200, the uptrend will remain intact. And on the higher side, 24,460 will be a critical hurdle," he added.

M&M, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., and HDFC Bank Ltd. dragged the Nifty the most.

ITC, ONGC, Tata Motors Ltd., State Bank of India, and Coal India Ltd. led the gains.

Only three out of the 12 sectors on the NSE declined. The Nifty Realty was the worst-performing sector, while Oil & Gas emerged as the top gainer.

The broader markets managed to hold their opening gains and outperformed the benchmark indices as the BSE MidCap and the SmallCap were trading 0.34% and 0.57% higher, respectively.

Fifteen out of the 20 sectors on the BSE advanced, with Oil & Gas rising the most and Realty declining the most.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of the buyers as 2,180 stocks advanced, 1,734 declined and 109 stocks remained unchanged on the BSE.