Sensex Closing Bell: Wednesday saw profit booking in the market. The Midcap Index closed lower after eight consecutive sessions of gains, while the Nifty Bank witnessed selling pressure from record highs.
Profit booking dominated the stock market on Wednesday, the third trading day of the week. The rally that had continued for eight consecutive sessions was halted today. Selling pressure was particularly evident on the Midcap and Nifty Bank indices. Both the Sensex and Nifty closed down by about half a percent. The market had started with a slight gain at the beginning of the day, but profit booking gained momentum as the day progressed.
How the market closed
After the day's fluctuations, the Sensex closed at 83,410, down 288 points. The Nifty closed at 25,453, down 88 points. The Nifty Bank index faced the most pressure and closed at 56,999, down 460 points. The Midcap Index also fell by 83 points to close at 59,667. This was the first decline in eight trading sessions.
Decline in Nifty Bank after record highs
The Nifty Bank index hit a record high at the start of trading on Wednesday, but selling pressure took over afterwards. Following six days of gains, the PSU Bank index also registered a decline today. This index closed down by one percent. Apart from the banking sector, there was also pressure in financial stocks.
Pressure on these sectors
Today's session saw the most selling in the Realty, Public Sector Enterprises, and Banking sectors. Real estate companies' shares performed poorly. Meanwhile, there was a slight increase in the Metal, Auto, and Pharma sectors. The metal stocks saw activity due to positive signals from China.
Metal stocks showed strength
Buying was seen in metal stocks after positive signals regarding demand and supply from China. Tata Steel was the top gainer on the Nifty today. In addition, shares of JSW Steel, Hindalco, and Vedanta also saw gains.
These shares saw the most activity
- HDB Financial Services made its debut on the stock exchange today. The company's shares closed with a jump of about 14 percent.
- Tata Communications saw a surge after Macquarie's buy recommendation, but the stock eventually closed with a 5 percent decline.
- RBL Bank saw the biggest decline today. The share fell by more than 4 percent.
- Dreamfolks Services shares closed down 5 percent.
- The decline of Sigachi Industries continued for the third consecutive session. Today, this share fell by 7 percent.
- Sai Silks performed brilliantly and this stock closed with a gain of 7 percent.
- Keystone Realtors received a new order of ₹3,000 crore, due to which its share closed 3 percent higher.
- Asian Paints stock closed with a 2 percent gain. Despite the CCI investigation against the company, investor confidence remained.
Focus on IPO stocks as well
In today's session, mixed reactions were seen in the recently listed IPO stocks. HDB Financial had a brilliant start, while selling pressure was high in stocks like Dreamfolks and Sigachi. This makes it clear that investors are in a profit-booking mood after the listing.
Broader market movement
Talking about the broader market, the Smallcap Index also closed with weakness. After several days of continuous gains, profit booking was seen in Midcap and Smallcap shares. This indicates that caution is now increasing in the market and investors are booking profits at higher levels.
