Indian equities traded in a narrow range on Tuesday with the Nifty 50 at 24,091.20, up just 10.80 points or 0.04% as of 12:55 pm, while the Sensex recovered to 77,098.16, gaining 140.89 points or 0.18%, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. The indices swung between gains and losses through the morning session, held back by broad-based selling in banking and financial stocks even as IT counters provided meaningful support. The Nifty slipped below the crucial 24,100 level in the previous session, marking its weakest close in six sessions, with market breadth remaining firmly in favour of declines. In two sessions, the Sensex and Nifty are down 0.93% and 1% respectively, indicating sustained selling pressure. In a notable footnote, Nifty closed exactly at its day low on both Wednesday and Thursday, the first time this has happened on consecutive sessions since the index's inception in 1997.
Nifty IT emerged as the best-performing sectoral index, while Nifty Realty was the worst performer, according to The Hindu BusinessLine. HCL Technologies led the Nifty gainers, rising 4.05% to ₹1,365.40 with volumes of over 23 lakh shares traded worth ₹31,154.89 lakh. ITC gained 4.01% to ₹265.75 on volumes of over 1.72 crore shares, making it one of the most actively traded stocks with a value of ₹45,660.62 lakh. Adani Ports climbed 3.62% to ₹1,650.70, Bharti Airtel rose 3.17% to ₹1,869.30, and Reliance Industries added 2.39% to ₹1,307.50, with trades worth over ₹1,14,238.71 lakh, the highest value among all gainers. On the losing side, Shriram Finance and Maruti Suzuki fell the most, each dropping around 4%. Shriram Finance slid 4.05% to ₹1,064.90, while Maruti declined 4.02% to ₹13,003.00, hitting an intraday low of ₹12,905.00 against a previous close of ₹13,547.00.
Banking stocks continued to weigh on market sentiment, with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI among the top laggards, as reported by The Hindu BusinessLine. Sudeep Shah, Head of Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, noted that frontline banking stocks are witnessing selling pressure and continue to underperform the broader market. The Bank Nifty opened with a gap-down near 57,560 and continued oscillating within the 57,000–58,000 range. On the options front, meaningful call writing was observed at the 24,200 and 24,300 strikes, while the 24,100 put strike held substantial open interest, followed by 24,000. The Nifty Advance-Decline Ratio stood at 23:27, indicating modest breadth weakness, with 1,854 stocks advancing while 1,939 declined on the BSE. Out of 4,069 stocks traded, 152 stocks hit 52-week highs and 98 were at 52-week lows.
The Nifty's 14-period daily ATR had declined to its lowest since January 7, 2026, reflecting ongoing compression in market volatility, according to SBI Securities. Sudeep Shah placed Nifty support at 24,020–24,000 and resistance at 24,250–24,270, with Sensex support at 76,800 and resistance at 77,600. A break below 24,000 could drag the index toward 23,870–23,850, while a move above 24,270 could extend gains toward 24,400. With Thursday's decline, the Nifty registered its lowest closing level in the last six trading sessions and witnessed higher volumes over the past 11 trading sessions, resulting in the formation of a distribution day. The index decisively closed below its 50-DMA and momentum indicators have turned less favourable, with the MACD line trading below the zero line and the 14-period daily RSI slipping below 45.
The Indian rupee continued to strengthen, with USD/INR trading near ₹95, extending its decline for a third consecutive session after facing rejection around ₹95.50, supported by RBI intervention, as reported by Enrich Money. The rupee was quoted around ₹94.80, with immediate support at ₹94.85–₹94.90. In commodities, MCX Crude Oil was trading near ₹8,250, extending gains for a fifth consecutive session from the ₹7,600 lows, with resistance seen at ₹8,300–₹8,350, while US WTI crude was near $86.6. COMEX Gold was flat near $4,500, up just 0.021%, with resistance at $4,520–$4,570, while MCX Gold edged up 0.08% and was consolidating below its 20-day EMA. COMEX Silver held near $67.50, up 0.64%, and MCX Silver traded above ₹2,41,600, up 0.69%, supported by domestic demand and rupee dynamics.
