Stock market ends marginally lower as investors remain cautious

The stock market on Tuesday ended marginally lower as investors remained cautious.

At the close, the Sensex was down 20.46 points, or 0.02%, at 84,675.08, while the Nifty declined 3.25 points, or 0.01%, at 25,938.85.

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The development comes ahead of the release of the Fed’s December minutes report, amid FII selling and thin year-end volumes.

The BSE Midcap and smallcap indices ended marginally lower, with the BSE Midcap index slipping 0.05% and the Smallcap index falling 0.20%.

Among the sectors, indices ended on a mixed note. Nifty Metal jumped 2%, Nifty PSU Bank and Auto indices clocked gains of 1.69% and 1.08%, respectively, while the Nifty Bank rose 0.41%, ending as the top gainer.

Nifty Realty (0.84%), Consumer Durables (0.81%), and IT (0.74%) were among the laggards.

Among bank stocks, Indian Overseas Bank and Canara Bank were the other gainers, rising 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively.

On the Nifty, the top gainers included Bajaj Auto (up 2.32%), Hindalco Industries (up 2.12%), and Shriram Finance (up 2%). The top losers were Eternal (down 2.21%), Eicher Motors (down 1.92%), and Tata Consumer (down 1.79%).

Over 100 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while nearly 200 stocks touched their 52-week lows.

Stocks hitting their highs included Jindal Stainless, NALCO, AIA Engineering, Shriram Finance, UPL, Ashok Leyland, Canara Bank, Choice International, Laurus Labs, Maruti Suzuki, City Union Bank, PTC Industries, and others.

Stocks hitting their lows included Happiest Minds, Poly Medicure, Tata Chemicals, BASF, PCBL Chemical, Dixon Technologies, Vedant Fashions, Colgate-Palmolive, Godrej Agrovet, ACC, and others.

Out of 4,347 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,918 advanced, 2,260 declined, and 169 remained unchanged.

Shares of Titan Company touched a record high after brokerages turned positive. The stock rose 1% to hit an all-time high of Rs 4,031.70 apiece on the NSE during the day.