Sensex, Nifty End Lower; Post Fourth Week Of Gains

Indian equity markets ended off the lowest point of the day to post modest losses. However, today's decline was not enough to prevent a fourth straight weekly advance for the benchmark indices.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.4% lower at 36,594 while the NSE Nifty 50 index also fell 0.4% to end at 10,768.

Banks were the top laggards in today's session. The Nifty Bank and PSU Bank index ended 2.2 and 2.7% lower respectively. Auto, Metal and Media stocks were the other laggards, with their respective indices ending with losses between 0.5-1%.

Nifty Pharma bucked the trend to end 0.8% higher while the FMCG index gained 0.6%.

Market heavyweights Reliance Industries Ltd. and Hindustan Unilever Ltd. ensured that the Nifty 50 index ended off the lowest point of the day. Both stocks were the top two gainers on the benchmark index, ending 3.1% and 2.5% higher respectively.

Broader markets remained subdued. The midcap index ended 0.7% lower while the smallcap index was little changed.

Market breadth remained adverse throughout the session. 1,194 stocks on the NSE ended with losses while 619 managed to end with gains.

For the week, both benchmark indices ended with gains of 1.6%. They have now posted weekly gains for four straight weeks - the longest weekly gaining streak since December 2019. Both Sensex and Nifty have also gained in six out of the last seven weeks.