After starting the day on a firm footing, domestic equity benchmarks erased all the gains towards the fag end of the session and closed in the red, tracking a negative trend in Asian markets. Sensex closed at 52,482.71, down 66.95 points or 0.13%, while Nifty lost 26.95 points or 0.17% to end at 15,721.50.
“Though the spread of the delta variant remained a concern in the Asian markets, the domestic market took a breather as focus on declining domestic cases lifted its mood. However, negative sentiments from global markets dropped investor’s risk appetite, forcing the market to close flat. Global markets are eyeing the release of the US job data for June due this week, which is crucial for the US Fed’s monetary policy decision,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Barring Nifty IT (up 0.63%) all other sectoral indices on the NSE ended with losses. Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, Nifty Private Bank slipped around 0.65% each. Nifty Realty, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty FMCG declined about 0.40% each. Nifty Metal, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Auto closed 0.20%, 0.15% and 0.11% lower respectively.
The trend in the broader markets was mixed. The BSE MidCap index ended flat with marginal loss of 0.03% at 22,535, while the BSE SmallCap index closed at 25,232 0.56% higher.
Gujarat Mineral, Adani Transmission, Affle, Adani Total, KRBL and Kansai Nerolac traded up to 5% lower. On the other hand, Uflex, Gujarat Fluorochemicals and JP Paper were among the top gainers in the broadest index on the bourse.