The Sensex ended Thursday's trading session with a decline of 135 points, or 0.18%, closing at 75,183.36, while the Nifty 50 settled at 23,654.70, down 4 points, or 0.02%. According to reports from Mint, the market experienced profit booking in select heavyweights including Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, and Infosys. Despite the benchmark indices closing lower, mid and small-cap segments demonstrated resilience with the BSE 150 Midcap index climbing 0.18% and the BSE 250 Smallcap index jumping 0.70%. The latest data shows the Sensex and Nifty slipped around 1% each from their intraday highs due to expiry day volatility, rising bond yields, and foreign institutional investor selling.
In the Sensex index, IndiGo, BEL, and Trent emerged as the top gainers, while Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, and Hindustan Unilever ended as the top losers. As reported by Mint, investors engaged in selective buying and selling as crude oil prices remained above $100 per barrel and the rupee weakened amid persisting uncertainty over a potential US-Iran peace deal. In the latest session, Bajaj Finance shares were the top losers on Sensex, falling nearly 2%, followed by Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, NTPC and others dropping up to 1.6%. IndiGo shares bucked the trend, jumping over 3% to lead gains, followed by Trent, Bharat Electronics, Adani Ports and others.
Crude oil benchmark Brent Crude jumped more than 2% on Thursday to trade above the $107 per barrel mark amid reports of further tensions in the Middle East. According to reports from Reuters, "Iran's Supreme Leader has issued a directive that the country's near-weapons-grade uranium should not be sent abroad." Meanwhile, the rupee rebounded 49 paise from its all-time closing low to settle at 96.37 against the US dollar on Thursday, as reported by PTI. As per Reuters, analyst Yang An at Haitong Futures noted that "the sharp drop in oil prices appears to be pricing in the possibility of a breakthrough in the talks," but warned that "if Trump insists on making no concessions to Iran, an agreement seems unlikely, and the outcome of the negotiations could reverse sharply."
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments, noted that domestic equities erased early gains as concerns over potential RBI rate hikes and weak manufacturing PMI data outweighed optimism from softer crude prices. As reported by Mint, Nair highlighted that uncertainty around US-Iran negotiations, signals of possible domestic monetary policy tightening, and a weaker growth outlook continued to raise macro concerns. On the technical front, Shrikant Chouhan from Kotak Securities believes 23,500-23,400 remain crucial support zones, while 23,800-23,850 could act as key resistance areas for the bulls. Despite some intraday recovery, markets ended in negative territory with India VIX, which measures volatility in markets, declining over 3% to 17.82 by the end of the session.
Sectorally, Nifty Financial Services, excluding banks, dropped 0.6% while Nifty Cement gained over 2%. Smallcaps outperformed benchmarks with the Nifty Smallcap 100 index bucking the trend to close 0.6% higher, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.04%. This divergence between large-cap and small-cap performance highlights selective investor interest in smaller companies despite broader market weakness. The resilience of small-cap segments suggests that investors are finding value opportunities in mid and small-cap stocks even as larger companies face pressure from geopolitical uncertainties and rising bond yields.
