Closing Bell: Bear and bull tussle leads the market to end slightly lower

Domestic bourses witnessed a volatile trading session on Wednesday in a tussle between the bulls and the bears on Dalal Street.

Headline equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty were unable to hold on to intraday gains in a volatile session today, despite strength across global markets, amid easing Russia-Ukraine tensions. Selling in financial and IT names pulled the benchmark indices lower though gains in oil & gas and pharma shares gave some support. Most of the global stock markets rebounded after the Russian defence ministry published footage of its troops returning to base after exercises.

At the closing bell on February 16, the Sensex was down 145.37 points or 0.25% at 57,996.68, and the Nifty was down 30.30 points or 0.17% at 17,322.20. On the market breadth, around 1958 shares have advanced, 1309 shares declined, and 99 shares are unchanged.

Check out: Views of Aditya Narain on the upcoming market uncertainty and how India will tack that

Top Nifty losers of the day were, Power Grid Corporation, UltraTech Cement, NTPC, ICICI Bank and SBI, while top gainers include Divis Labs, Adani Ports, ONGC, IOC and HDFC Life. In the laggard, the stock of State Bank of India (SBI) cracked 1.87% to Rs 515.

On a sectoral basis, selling was seen in the auto, IT, power, metal, PSU bank, capital goods, while healthcare, oil & gas and realty indices ended in the green. In the broad market, the midcap index ended flat while smallcap index rose 0.42%.

Also in the news today, shares of Vedant Fashions, the owner of the Manyavar brand got listed at a premium of 8%. On its trading debut, the stock settled 9.04% higher at Rs 944.25.

In another economic update, UK’s inflation jumped to 5.5% in January recording a 30 year high, putting pressure on the Bank of England for a further rate hike sooner than earlier anticipated.

Also read: These stocks witness huge volume burst in the last leg of the trading session!