New Delhi: Indian frontline indices closed with marginal gains on Thursday ahead of the Q2 results of the country’s largest IT services firm, TCS, to be released later in the day. Inflation data from the US after market hours will also be a key monitorable. At closing, Sensex was up 144 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 81,611 and Nifty was at 24,998, up 16 points, or 0.07 per cent.
Nifty Bank closed at 51,530 with a rise of 523 points, or 1.03 per cent, due to a rise in banking stocks. In the Sensex pack, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, HDFC Bank, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Axis Bank, M&M, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, ITC, Bajaj Finance, and Tata Steel were the top gainers.
Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Titan, Wipro, Tata Motors, L&T, TCS, HUL, Asian Paints, and Reliance were the top losers. Small and medium stocks closed mixed. Nifty midcap 100 index closed at 58,935, down 166 points or 0.28 per cent, and Nifty smallcap 100 index closed at 18,900, up 35 points or 0.19 per cent.
Among the sectoral indices, Auto, fin service, metal, energy, private bank and commodity contributed the most. IT, PSU Bank, pharma, FMCG, realty, and media fell the most. The market trend was positive. On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2,259 shares closed in the green, 1,654 shares in red, and 133 shares closed without any change.
According to the market experts, the market traded on a range-bound trend with a negative bias ahead of the start of the Q2 results. The Asian market started well but could not hold on to the gains as European markets waved on a negative trend in anticipation of the key US inflation data, global bond yields are rising, the experts said.
Domestic broader market momentum was mixed with caution as the initial expectation of Q2FY25 results is subdued due to a subpar momentum in the global and rural demand, they added.
