Dalal Street ended a choppy Wednesday lower, with the Sensex declining 270.84 points or 0.33% to 81,909.63 and Nifty slipping 75 points or 0.30% to 25,157.50. The session painted a picture of selective profit-booking amid mixed sector performances.
Dragging the indices were consumer durables (-1.66%), defense, PSU banks, and financial services (down 0.87-1.25%). These pockets of weakness overshadowed buying in metals, oil & gas, infrastructure, energy, and commodities sectors, where optimism prevailed.
Mid and smallcaps outperformed largecaps on the downside, signaling risk aversion in riskier assets. Nifty Midcap 100 shed 1.14% (661.70 points) to 57,423.65, while Nifty Smallcap 100 dropped 0.90% (149.85 points) to 16,551.20.
Gainers in Sensex included Eternal, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports, Indigo, Power Grid, Tata Steel, TCS, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, and Bajaj Finance. The loser list featured ICICI Bank, Trent, BEL, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, L&T, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, and Kotak Mahindra Bank.
BSE’s advance-decline ratio tilted bearish: 1,437 up, 2,831 down, 137 steady. Expert take from Sudip Shah of SBI Securities: ‘Nifty opened weak at 24,920 low, recovered to 25,275-25,300 on buys, but closed soft at 25,158.’ He flags 24,900-24,950 support and 25,300-25,350 resistance.
This close comes against a backdrop of global uncertainties and domestic earnings anticipation. While resilient sectors provide hope, the broad sell-off warns of underlying pressures. Markets may consolidate near these pivots before the next decisive move.