Stock market today: Sensex, Nifty 50 close in the red; mid, small-caps outperform

Stock market today: Indian stock market benchmarks, the Sensex and the Nifty 50, ended in the red on Thursday, September 5, with shares of select heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel as the top drags.

The lack of fresh catalysts and weak global cues kept market sentiment. Investors are now focused on the monthly jobs report in the US, due out on Friday, which will be a significant factor in influencing expectations about the size and extent of Fed rate cuts.

The Sensex closed 151 points, or 0.18 per cent, lower at 82,201.16, while the Nifty 50 settled at 25,145.10, down 54 points, or 0.21 per cent. The mid and small-cap segments, however, closed with gains. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed 0.27 per cent and 0.56 per cent higher, respectively.

Over 320 stocks, including Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, Apollo Hospitals, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance, Divi's Labs, Lupin, DMart, HDFC AMC, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, Shriram Finance, and United Spirits, hit fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade on the BSE.

The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms increased to nearly ₹465.66 lakh crore from ₹465.14 lakh crore in the previous session.

“Markets ended weak in a volatile trading session led by profit-taking in Reliance Industries. Globally, most of the equity indices were sluggish to mixed and are awaiting key US data on Friday, which would provide some hint on the Federal Reserve chief's likely stance on the interest rate in this month's policy announcement,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.

As many as 33 stocks ended with losses in the Nifty 50 index. Shares of Cipla (down 1.46 per cent), Dr Reddy's Labs (down 1.28 per cent) and Coal India (down 1.28 per cent) closed as the top losers in the Nifty index.

On the other hand, shares of Titan (up 3.11 per cent), LTIMindtree (up 1.44 per cent) and Wipro (up 1.16 per cent) closed as the top gainers in the index.

In terms of index contribution, Reliance Industries (down 1.26 per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 1.08 per cent) and L&T (down 0.71 per cent) ended as the top drags on the index.

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Realty (down 0.97 per cent), Auto (down 0.38 per cent), Oil & Gas (down 0.38 per cent), Pharma (down 0.12 per cent) and FMCG (down 0.07 per cent) ended in the red.

However, Nifty Media (up 0.81 per cent), Consumer Durables (up 0.66 per cent) and IT (up 0.46 per cent) ended with decent gains.

Nifty Bank rose 0.14 per cent, while the PSU Bank and Private Bank indices rose 0.32 per cent and 0.09 per cent, respectively.

On the technical front, Jatin Gedia, a technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, underscored that the uptrend is still intact; however, there is a high probability of consolidation within the range of 25,000 – 25,350 over the next few trading sessions.

"Dips towards the support zone 25,100- 25,050 should be used as a buying opportunity. On the upside, the immediate hurdle is placed at 25,300 – 25,350," said Gedia.

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