Indian stock market benchmarks closed flat today. The 30-share index, Sensex opened with a loss against its previous close and traded in the red for most part of the session. Eventually, the index closed 36 points, or 0.05 per cent, lower at 79,960. Nifty, on the other hand, started the day with marginal gain. However, at close Nifty too declined marginally to end at 24,320.
In the broader market, Midcap and Smallcap indices at BSE, closed with losses. Midcap index fell 0.14 per cent while the Smallcap index ended 0.22 per cent lower.
15 out of 30 companies registered gains in the Sensex index. The top three gainers today were ITC 2.24 percent, Hindustan Unilever 1.55 percent and Nestle India 1.14 percent.
Conversely, the three major laggards were, TITAN 3.54 percent, Adani Ports 1.65 percent and Tata Steel 1.4 percent.
In Sectoral Indices at the BSE, 7 sectors out of 20 sectors logged gains. The top three gainers were, FMCG 1.46 percent, Oil and gas 1 percent, and Energy sector gained 0.81 percent.
On the other hand, Consumer Durables with 1.46 percent loss, Telecommunication with 0.78 percent and auto sector with 0.63 percent loss, were the 3 major laggards.
The overall Market breadth at the BSE was negative. Out of 4,169 Companies, the shares of 1,798 companies advanced, 2,261 declined and 110 remain unchanged.
In the forex market, Indian rupee appreciated marginally to end the day at 83 rupees and 50 paisa against US dollar.
The US Dollar, which indicates its strength against a basket of six other leading currencies was trading 0.06 percent up at 104.93.
Major Asian indices showed a negative trend today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slumped 1.57 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.93 percent, Japan’s Nikkei was down by 0.32 percent and South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.19 percent.
Major European indices are trading higher today. Germany’s DAX was up by 0.36 percent, London’s FTSE gained 0.32 percent while France’s CAC climbed 0.22 percent when reports last came in.
At Multi Commodity Exchange, Gold prices were negative today. The precious metal, for August contract, was down by 0.29 percent and trading at 72,840 rupees per 10 grams, whereas Silver for September contract, was up by 0.02 percent and trading at 93,572 rupees per kilogram when the reports last came in.
In the global markets, gold was trading 0.62 percent down at 2,383 dollars and 10 cents per ounce on Comex. Silver was down too by over one percent to trade at 31 dollars and 37 cents per ounce in the intra-day session, when reports last came in.
