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

• The local currency weakened 4 paise to close at 83.45 against the US dollar.

• It closed at 83.41 on Tuesday.

Source: Bloomberg

Indian benchmarks shed their early gains to settle mixed on bank futures expiry day as Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Reliance Industries dragged, while banks' stocks supported.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 36.30 points or 0.15% lower at 23,521.60. 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.

Intraday, the Nifty 50 index rose 0.45% to fresh high of 23,664.00, and the Sensex rose 0.71% to a fresh high of 77,851.63.

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

India Volatility index settled 5.77% higher at 13.71 after falling to over 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 which can be potential budget beneficiaries - with buying seen across Agriculture, Power, Cap Goods and Infra sectors. Expectations of order announcement in defence sector raised investor interest with shares like HAL, Mazgaon Dock, Garden Reach shipbuilders, Paras Defence up double digit over the last one week. We expect markets to remain at elevated levels and believe some rotation could be seen in Reliance, IT, Pharma and Banking sector," said Jaykrishna Gandhi, head, Business Development, Institutional Equities, Emkay Global Financial Services on markets.

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

HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., and Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. added to the index.

On NSE, six sectors declined, and four rose out of 12. The NSE Nifty Realty declined the most, and the NSE Nifty Bank rose the most.

"Mid and Smallcap led correction dragged the Index lower in the morning session to trade lower by over 100 points, but a strong dominance of the Banking counters helped the Index to recoup its losses and register a fresh high of 23,664 but another round of selling in the last hour of trade pulled the Index lower once again to settle the day at 23,516.00 with a loss of 41.90 points. Apart from Bank Nifty, the IT sector performed well while Energy and Realty corrected the most. On the daily timeframe, the Index has formed a Bearish Engulfing candle with a probable bearish divergence in RSI which indicates a temporary pause in its uptrend with the lower side being protected at 23,340 while today's high i.e. 23,660 will be considered as resistance," said Aditya Gaggar, director, Progressive Shares.

Broader markets underperformed. The S&P BSE Midcap and Smallcap settled 0.91% and 0.58% lower, respectively.

On BSE, 17 sectors declined, three rose out of 20. The S&P BSE Realty was the top loser and S&P BSE Bankex rose the most.

Market breadth was skewed in favour of sellers. Around 2,223 stocks declined, 1,647 stocks advanced, and 104 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.

• ZF Commercial Vehicle Control Systems India Ltd.'s Promoter WABCO Asia sells 7.5% stake in the company.

Source: Exchange filing

• Coal India Ltd. is to tap coal from abandoned underground mines mines through private operators.

• Cumulative peak rated capacity of 23 selected underground mines is 34.14 million ton per annum.

• Underground mines have total extractable reserves estimated at 635 million ton.

Source: Exchange filing