Closing Bell: Headline indices close marginally lower in a choppy trading session

Domestic equity bourses Sensex and Nifty erased initial gains in a choppy trading session on Wednesday, amid mixed moves in other Asian markets. Losses in oil & gas and metal stocks offset gains in financial, IT and pharma shares.

Indian equity market closed lower as selling in banking and information technology (IT) stocks offset gains in consumer goods and pharma shares. The headline indices erased their early gains and slipped into the red, halting the two-day rally. Today, investor sentiment was lower as UK's inflation hit a 40-year high - at 9% in April 2022. Owing to these developments, Indian benchmark indices ended with marginal losses.

At the closing bell on May 18, the Sensex was down 109.94 points or 0.20% at 54,208.53, and the Nifty was down 19 points or 0.12% at 16,240.30. On the market breadth, around 1865 shares have advanced, 1409 shares declined, and 108 shares are unchanged.

Top Nifty gainers of the day were Tata Consumer Products, Shree Cements, UltraTech Cement, Cipla and HUL. Top losers include Power Grid Corporation, BPCL, Apollo Hospitals, Tata Motors and Tech Mahindra. Among the top laggards, PowerGrid was the top Nifty loser as the stock lost 4.53% to Rs 227.85.

On a sectoral basis, buying was seen in the FMCG and Pharma index, while selling was seen in the bank, capital goods, realty, IT, metal, PSU Bank, and oil & gas indices. In the broad markets, BSE midcap index ended on a flat note, while smallcap index was up 0.3%.

Also in the buzz, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India edged higher by 0.09% higher to settle at Rs 876.25 today. LIC made a subdued debut at the exchanges on Tuesday, listing at a discount of 8.62% over its issue price of Rs 949.