Sensex down 98 points; IT stocks gain

The stock market started the day on a positive note but could not sustain gains. The market was volatile as in the past week. The Sensex was down 98 points and the Nifty was down 24 points.

The Sensex ended at 38,756 points. It was up 39,230 points on September 14. But The Sensex has not been able to cross the psychological level of 39,000.

The Nifty was up 11,568 points at one point but could not sustain gains. It closed at 11,440 points. It had fallen to 11,384 points during trading but closed above 11,400.

Most of the index-based stocks were down. Of the 34 stocks in the Nifty, only 16 gained. IT stocks were the main gainers on the day. HCL Tech, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and UPL are the top five gainers in the Nifty.

The Nifty IT index was up 4.44%. Shares of HCL Technologies rose 10.60 per cent on the back of strong performance in the second quarter. This led to the rise of other IT stocks as well. TCS was up 4.85 per cent and Wipro was up 4.45 per cent. IT stocks such as HCL Tech, TCS, Wipro and Infosys hit 52-week highs on the day.

Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, BPCL, Powergrid and SBI were the biggest losers in the Nifty. Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance and BPCL fell more than 3 per cent.

The Nifty Realty Index was up 3.72 per cent. At the same time, selling pressure on bank shares was visible.

SEBI’s proposal to change the investment ratio of multicap funds has led to a surge in smallcap stocks. The Nifty Smallcap 50 Index was up 6.25 per cent on the day.