Sensex, Nifty End Slightly Down As Stocks Pare Gains In The Final Hour

(RTTNews) - Indian stock indexes Sensex and the Nifty50 ended marginally down on Monday as stocks faced some resistance during the final hour despite having rebounded from an early setback and stayed firm till about the penultimate hour of the session.

The market started off on a weak note this morning with stocks, especially those from the Adani group, falling sharply in reaction to U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research's allegations that market regulator SEBI's chairperson had stake in some obscure offshore entities used in the alleged Adani money siphoning scandal.

However, stocks recovered swiftly and moved into positive territory as investors shifted their focus to earnings updates and looed ahead to key inflation and industrial output data, due later in the day.

The BSE benchmark Sensex, which rallied to 80,106.18 from an early low of 79,226.13, ended the session at 79,648.92 with a loss of 56.99 points or 0.07%.

The broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange settled with a loss of 20.50 points or 0.08% at 24,347.00. The index scaled a low of 24,212.10 and a high of 24,472.80 intraday.

Media and PSU bank stocks were among the prominent losers in the session. Consumer durables, realty and metal stocks had a fairly good outing.

NTPC shares ended down 2.4%. Power Grid Corporation, State Bank of India, Nestle India and Mahindra & Mahindra lost 1.1 to 1.4%. Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen & Toubro ended moderately lower.

Axis Bank climbed 1.8%. Infosys and JSW Steel both ended stronger by about 1.5%. Tata Motors and HDFC Bank gained 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.

ONGC ended 2.6% up, and HeroMotocorp gained 2.15%. JSW Steel, Divi's Laboratories, Hindalco and Cipla also closed on firm note.

Adani Ports, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Britannia Industries, Adani Enterprises, Coal India and Tata Consumer Produces ended notably lower.

Jubilant Foodworks rose sharply after the company reprted a sharp surge in consolidated net profit for the first quarter. Siemens posted a modest gain after reporting a 25.2% increase in net profit for the quarter ended June 2024 compared to a year ago.

Voltas soared nearly 11% as the company's net profit increased to Rs 334.23 crore in the first quarter of its current year, from about Rs 129 crore in the year-ago quarter. Sun TV Network shares tanked 10.7% on weak results.

The market breadth was slightly negative. On BSE, 1,941 stocks moved higher, and 2,126 stocks closed weak, while 118 stocks ended flat.