Sensex, Nifty Come Off Early Lows; Metal Stocks Shine Again

(RTTNews) - After a weak spell that lasted a little over an hour, benchmark BSE Sensex moved above the flat line Tuesday morning, but retreated into negative territory soon as stocks faced resistance at higher levels.

The Sensex, which fell to 84,470.94 earlier in the session, was down 94.64 points or 0.11% at 84,600.90 a little while ago, while the National Stock Exchange's Nifty50 was down 26.52 points or 0.1% at index 25,915.58.

Indigo, Eternal and Bajaj Finserv lost 1.6%, 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively. UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Infosys and BEL drifted down 0.5 to 0.75%.

Mahindra & Mahindra climbed about 1.2%. Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone and Axis Bank lost 0.6 to 1%.

Shriram Finance, up 2.1%, topped the Nifty gainers list. Hindalco gained 1.2%. JSW Steel, State Bank of India and Trent posted modest gains. Hero Motocorp rallied nearly 2%.

Max Health, Tata Consumer Products, HDFC Life, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, Eicher Motors and Cipla drifted down by 0.5 to 1.7%.

Hindustan Copper moved up nearly 7%, extending gains to a third straight session. Jindal Stainless, Jindal Steel, National Aluminum, NMDC and SAIL gained 1 to 3.5%.

PSU bank stocks Indian Bank, Maharashtra Bank and Canara Bank gained 2.2%, 1.7% and 1.1%, respectively.

Lupin has entered into an exclusive License, Supply, and Distribution Agreement with Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals for a novel fortnightly GLP-1 receptor agonist, Bofanglutide. The injection is used for treating type 2 diabetes and for aiding weight management. Lupin was seen hovering around its previous closing price.

Reliance Industries has said that a Reuters report saying that the Indian government was seeksing over $30 billion in compensation from RIL and BP in arbitration for gas underproduction, as "factually incorrect." The heavyweight stock remained subdued and was last seen at Rs. 1,545.00.

The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 1,686 stocks moved higher, and 2,091 stocks slipped into negative territory, while 239 stocks were little changed.

On the economic front, data released by the government after trading hours on Monday showed the industrial production in India grew 6.7% from the previous year in November, accelerating from the upwardly revised 0.5% increase in the previous month, to mark the sharpest pace of expansion since October of 2023.

The manufacturing output in India expanded by 8% annually in November, according to a preliminary estimate, following the upwardly revised 2% increase in the previous month.