Indian stock markets finished Monday's session with modest gains following a volatile day of trading. The Sensex and Nifty managed to close higher despite selling pressure in IT and metal shares. Gains in PSU banks, pharmaceutical companies and select financial stocks supported the benchmark indices, while profit booking limited their advance after last week's strong rally.
The Sensex climbed 107.25 points, or 0.13%, to end at 81,106.65. The Nifty added 58.25 points, or 0.23%, to settle at 25,044.65.
The Sensex opened at 81,327.29 and touched a high of 81,339.41 during the session before declining to an intraday low of 80,519.31. The Nifty began trading at 25,076.40, moving between a high of 25,084.05 and a low of 24,838.75.
PSU BANKS LEAD SECTORAL GAINS
Buying interest in banking shares, particularly public sector banks, helped the market maintain its positive momentum. The Nifty PSU Bank index led sectoral performance with a gain of 3.25%.
The Nifty Financial Services 25/50 index advanced 0.81%, while the Nifty Private Bank index rose 0.53%.
Pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks also performed well. The Nifty Pharma index gained 1.51%, and the Nifty Healthcare index climbed 1.11%. The Nifty Consumer Durables index rose 0.77%, while the Nifty Media and Nifty Realty indices advanced 0.51% and 0.30%, respectively.
The Nifty Auto index remained almost unchanged, while the Nifty Oil & Gas index edged higher by 0.16%. The Nifty MidSmall Healthcare index gained 1.55%, and the Nifty MidSmall Financial Services index rose 0.29%.
However, IT and metal shares witnessed selling pressure. The Nifty IT index declined 1.56%, while the Nifty Metal index dropped 0.49%. The Nifty FMCG index slipped 0.36%. The Nifty Financial Services ex-Bank index fell 0.16%, and the Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom index lost 1.11%.
The Nifty Chemicals index closed with a gain of 0.26%.
TOP SENSEX GAINERS AND LOSERS
State Bank of India emerged as the biggest Sensex gainer, rising 2.43%. Trent advanced 2.13%, followed by Larsen & Toubro, which gained 1.96%. NTPC climbed 1.59%, HDFC Bank rose 1.52%, and ICICI Bank added 1.21%.
Among the other advancing stocks, Maruti Suzuki gained 0.61%, Mahindra & Mahindra rose 0.59%, and Titan added 0.22%. Reliance Industries edged up 0.07%, while IndiGo gained 0.03%. Kotak Mahindra Bank finished unchanged.
HCL Technologies was the biggest laggard, declining 2.49%. Tata Steel dropped 2.43%, UltraTech Cement fell 2%, Bajaj Finance lost 1.83%, and Tech Mahindra declined 1.75%.
Other notable losers included ITC, which fell 1.66%, Infosys, down 1.54%, Asian Paints, which declined 1.30%, and Power Grid Corporation, which slipped 1.26%. Bajaj Finserv lost 1.03%, while TCS dropped 0.96%.
Bharti Airtel and Bharat Electronics declined 0.88% each. Adani Ports fell 0.54%, Sun Pharma lost 0.53%, Eternal declined 0.51%, Hindustan Unilever slipped 0.42%, and Axis Bank ended 0.23% lower.
Broader market indices mostly finished in positive territory, although their gains remained limited. The Nifty 100 and Nifty 200 advanced 0.21% each, while the Nifty 500 gained 0.14%.
The Nifty Midcap 50 rose 0.09%, and the Nifty Midcap 100 advanced 0.17%. The Nifty Smallcap 100 edged up 0.01%.
India VIX, an indicator of expected market volatility, declined 5.11% to 17.49, suggesting that near-term investor anxiety had eased somewhat.
WHY DID THE MARKET STRUGGLE TO BUILD ON LAST WEEK'S RALLY?
Investors booked profits during Monday's session following the substantial gains recorded in the previous week. Weakness in IT and metal stocks also restricted the benchmarks, offsetting the support provided by banking and pharmaceutical shares.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments Limited, said domestic equities traded within a range while maintaining a positive bias. He added that intermittent profit booking following the recent rally prevented the market from making stronger gains.
According to Nair, improving participation from foreign institutional investors and corporate earnings that exceeded expectations had raised hopes of an upward revision in the FY27 earnings outlook, supporting overall sentiment.
He said reasonable valuations, particularly among large-cap companies, reduced geopolitical tensions, a decline in crude oil prices from recent highs and expectations of a double-digit recovery in earnings were providing a favourable medium-term outlook.
However, Nair warned that several positive macroeconomic developments appeared to have already been factored into stock prices.
Investors are now looking towards inflation figures from India and the US for clues about the future direction of interest rates. Movements in crude oil prices and global risk appetite will also be important factors in the near term, he added.
Crude oil prices declined during Monday's trading session. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $0.44, or 0.48%, to $90.39 per barrel. Brent crude futures dropped $0.90, or 0.92%, to $97.42 per barrel.
Lower crude prices offer some relief to India, which relies heavily on imported oil to meet domestic demand. Nevertheless, investors will continue to track international developments and energy prices because of their potential impact on inflation and business costs.
