Sensex, Nifty Snap 8-session Losing Streak, Close Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - After eight successive days of losses, Indian stocks managed to close marginally up on Monday, but not before suffering an early setback and a continued struggle till well past mid afternoon.

Bargain hunting at select counters contributed to market's rise from lower levels. The mood remained cautious amid uncertainty about the U.S. government's economic and international trade policies, and a lack of any significantly positive trigger from the domestic front.

The benchmark BSE Sensex closed up 57.65 points or 0.08% at 75,996.86. The Sensex, which tumbled nearly 650 points to 75,294.75 in early trades, climbed to a high of 76,041.96 in the final hour.

The broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange settled with a gain of 30.25 points or 0.13% at 22,959.50, coming off an early low of 22,725.45.

Pharmaceuticals shares had a good session. Select oil, consumer durables and PSU bank stocks moved higher, while technology and automobile stocks closed mixed.

Bajaj Finserv climbed 2.85%. IndusInd Bank and Power Grid Corporation both closed higher by about 2.3%. Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Zomato, Nestle, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Asian Paints, NTP, Maruti Suzuki and Reliance Industries gained 0.7 to 2%.

M&M ended down 3.75% despite the company announcing that its newly launched electric sports utility vehicles have recorded 30,179 bookings on the first day. The booking value stands at Rs 8,472 crore (ex-showroom price).

Bharti Airtel closed lower by about 2.4%. Tata Consultany Services, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro and ITC lost 0.5 to 0.75%.

Shriram Finance, UltraTech Cement, Coal India, ONGC, Grasim Industries, Eicher Motors and Cipla gained 1 to 2%.

Shares of Zen Technologies hit the 20% lower circuit after the company reported a sharp drop in new orders.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals climbed nearly 4% on turnaround results. The pharma major reported consolidated net profit of Rs 348 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, as against a net loss of Rs 315 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The market breadth was very weak. On BSE, 2,733 stocks closed lower, and 1,354 stocks ended on a positive note. 134 stocks ended flat.

In economic news, data released by the government showed India's merchandise trade deficit stood at $22.99 billion in January, in line with expectations. Economists had estimated the January trade deficit to be $22.35 billion. Merchandise exports in January stood at $36.43 billion compared with $38.01 billion in December 2024. The imports for the month were $59.42 billion, while they were at $59.95 billion the month prior.