Equity markets gained marginally amid extreme volatility witnessed during the day. Markets started the day higher following positive opening by Asian markets. It did experience a blip of negativity in the second half however it soon recovered with firm opening by European markets and ended marginally above the flat line. Market breadth was positive as on BSE, 1,644 shares gained and 1,172 shares declined.
The BSE Sensex touched a intraday high of 17,526 and dropped to a low of 17,351 before it closed the day with 0.2% gains or 26 points higher at 17,425. Mid cap and small cap stocks too gained however they outperformed the large cap peers. Both the BSE Mid-cap and BSE Small-cap indices grew by 0.5% and 0.8% respectively. The S&P CNX Nifty too gained 0.2% or mere 9 points before it closed the day at 5,288 points.
Majority of the indices on the BSE sectoral space ended higher. The only three losing indices were the BSE FMCG, BSE IT and BSE Power indices which fell by 0.8%, 0.5% and 0.1% respectively. Below-than-expected monsoons have dried up sentiments in the FMCG space. On the other hand, the BSE Consumer Durable, BSE Realty and BSE PSU indices were the top gaining indices which grew by 3%, 2% and 1% respectively. Metal stocks were mostly higher on hopes of further monetary policy easing from China. The BSE Metal index gained 0.8%.
Among the 30 stocks on BSE, 14 stocks declined while the others gained. BHEL, Jindal Steel, TCS, ITC and HUL were the top five losing stocks which fell by 1.6%, 1.5%, 1.4%, 1.3% and 1% respectively. On the contrary, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, HDFC, Coal India and Gail were the top five gaining stocks which grew by 3.1%, 2.3%, 2%, 2% and 1.9% respectively.
