Closing Bell: Sensex halts four-day losing streak, Nifty ends above 16000

After four days of continuous fall, the Indian market today ended a choppy trading session in the positive zone helped by buying interest in financial, pharma and IT stocks.

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty finished in the green on Tuesday, snapping the four-day losing streak led by strong buying interest in information technology and pharma stocks. During today's trade, both the indexes swung between gains and losses before settling in the positive zone amid high volatility.

However, investors globally remained cautious tracking newsflow on the Russia-Ukraine war. The India VIX, which is also known as the fear index, eased 2.5% to finish the day at 28.6. Last month, after Russia invaded Ukraine it had sent the index soaring to almost 34, a 20-month high.

At the closing bell on March 8, the Sensex was up 581.34 points or 1.10% at 53,424.09, and the Nifty was up 150.30 points or 0.95% at 16,013.50. On the market breadth, round 2193 shares have advanced, 1069 shares declined, and 84 shares are unchanged.

Among the top Nifty gainers today were IOC, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products, Cipla and TCS. On the other hand, Hindalco Industries, ONGC, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Britannia Industries were the top losers.

On a sectoral basis, except metal all other sectoral indices ended in the green with pharma, IT, FMCG, capital goods and realty indices up 1-2%. In the broad market, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose over 1% each.

In global markets, the European shares saw cautious gains in the early hours as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine made little progress in the on-going war. Nervousness persisted among investors amid talks between the US and European governments on banning imports of Russian oil and natural gas supplies.