The Indian stock market traded within a narrow range on Thursday as investors remained cautious, leading to a largely unchanged closing for the benchmark indices.
The Sensex fluctuated between an intra-day high of 74,834 and a low of 74,521, before closing marginally higher at 74,612, registering a modest gain of 10 points. Similarly, the Nifty moved within a 100-point range, touching a high of 22,613 and a low of 22,508, before settling nearly flat at 22,545 on its expiry day.
Market sentiment remained subdued, with sellers dominating at higher levels.
“On the lower end, 22,500 continues to act as support, similar to how 22,800 did a few days ago. We expect Nifty to decline towards 22,200 and lower if it falls below 22,500,” said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.
NBFC Stocks Shine Amid Market Weakness
Among Sensex stocks, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv led the gainers, rising over 2% each. Other top performers included IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Zomato, and Axis Bank, which saw intra-day gains of over 1%.
However, UltraTech Cement faced a sharp decline of nearly 5% following its announcement of an entry into the wires and cables business. Other major laggards included Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, and NTPC.
The broader market saw selling pressure, with the BSE MidCap index dropping 1% and the SmallCap index slipping over 2%.
NBFC & MFI Stocks Rally on RBI Move
Despite the overall caution, stocks in the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) sector saw strong buying interest.
Shares of CreditAccess Grameen, L&T Finance, and Mahindra & Mahindra Finance surged up to 15% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a reduction in risk weights on MFI loans and loans extended to NBFCs.
Rupee Remains Flat Amid High Volatility
The rupee traded largely flat at 87.17, after witnessing high volatility earlier in the session. It weakened to 87.54 before recovering to 87.10 by the close.
“The session ended on a neutral note as the dollar index remained range-bound, and FII sell-off was countered by DII inflows, stabilizing the secondary markets,” said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst – Commodity and Currency at LKP Securities.
He further noted that the rupee’s movement in the coming days will depend on global cues, dollar momentum, and oil price trends.
-ANI