The stock market on Thursday ended with marginal losses in a volatile session as Nifty managed to hold above the 24,330 mark.
At the close, Sensex was down 114 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 77,844.52, while the Nifty was down 4.30 points, or 0.02 per cent, at 24,326.65. The Nifty Midcap index rose 1.1% to hit a fresh high of 62,094.40, while the Smallcap index gained 0.9%.
The markets reacted amid the hopes of easing geopolitical tensions following reports of a potential US-Iran peace deal.
The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rose to over Rs 475 lakh crore from Rs 472.8 lakh crore.
Among the sectors, pressure was seen in FMCG, IT, PSU Bank and consumer durable stocks. Further, buying interest emerged in auto, defence, media, and metal counters. Nifty Consumer Durables, IT, and FMCG fell by almost 1%, while Nifty Auto jumped 2%. Nifty Bank ended with a modest gain of 0.12%.
On the Nifty, the gainers were HDFC Life Insurance, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Grasim Industries and NTPC, while on the losing end were Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Titan Company, TCS and ITC.
More than 200 stocks touched their 52-week highs on the BSE, including Polycab, J&K Bank, GE Vernova TD, CG Power, Hitachi Energy, Syrma SGS, Bajaj Auto, Amber Enterprises, Kirloskar Oil, HFCL, Laurus Labs, Tata Steel, Lupin, CCL Products, AB Capital, Welspun Corp, Cummins, Bank of Maharashtra, Adani Green, and Aurobindo Pharma, among others.
Defence stocks witnessed strong buying momentum. Bharat Dynamics surged 4.7%, while Cochin Shipyard and Hindustan Aeronautics gained 3.5% and 3.4%, respectively.
Foreign investors continued their selling spree in financial stocks in the second half of April. They offloaded over Rs 11,700 crore after selling over Rs 19,150 crore in the first half of the month.