BIZNAMA DESK
– After a volatile trading session, domestic equity markets ended slightly lower on Monday but managed to recover significantly from the day’s lows. The BSE Sensex closed at 81,374, down 77 points or 0.09%, after rebounding 719 points from its intraday low of 80,654. Similarly, the NSE Nifty50 settled at 24,717, slipping 34 points or 0.14%, recovering from a low of 24,526.
The session began on a weak note, weighed down by global uncertainties, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to double tariffs on steel imports to 50%, effective June 4. Geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a rise in India’s COVID-19 cases, volatile foreign institutional investment (FII) flows, and caution ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy announcement also dampened investor sentiment.
However, selective buying in frontline stocks helped trim losses. Shares of Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Zomato, PowerGrid, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, and Nestle India gained between 0.4% and 2%, providing support to the benchmarks.
In the broader markets, the mood was more upbeat. The Nifty MidCap and Nifty SmallCap indices rose 0.62% and 1.1%, respectively, outperforming the benchmarks.
On the sectoral front, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal were the biggest laggards, each declining 0.7% amid concerns over the U.S. tariff hike. In contrast, Nifty Realty and Nifty PSU Bank indices led the gains, each rising over 2%.
Conversely, the broader market indices at the BSE outperformed the benchmark indices. The Mid-Cap index advanced almost 0.6 per cent, and the Small-Cap index increased over 0.3 per cent.
In the Sensex index, 17 out of 30 companies ended down. In the top laggards, Tech Mahindra slid almost one and half per cent, Tata Steel lost 1.2 per cent, and Tata Motors slipped over 1.1 per cent. Among the top gainers, Adani Ports surged two and half per cent, Mahindra and Mahindra added almost 1.6 per cent, and PowerGrid advanced over one per cent.
In sectoral indices at the BSE, 12 out of 21 edged up while one remained unchanged. Among the top gainers, Realty jumped over 2.3 per cent, Services climbed 1.2 per cent, and FMCG added over 0.6 per cent. In the top laggards, Focused IT shed 0.7 percent, Metal as well as IT, both dropped over half percent each, and Teck declined more than 0.4 percent.
The overall market breadth at the BSE was positive as shares of 2,128 companies advanced, shares of 1,992 companies declined, while shares of 167 companies remained unchanged. At the National Stock Exchange, 68 companies hit their 52-week high, while 38 companies hit their 52-week low.