Sensex Ends 5-Day Losing Streak, Ends 79 pts Higher; Nifty Around 17K; BPCL Up 6%

Sensex Today: Benchmark indices ended on positive note in the highly volatile session on March 16. The S&P BSE Sensex plunged to a low of 57,159 in the opening hour, but soon recouped losses and thereafter rallied to a high of 57,887. The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 79 points at 57,635.

Nestle, Titan, Hindustan Unilever and Asian Paints were the major gainers among the Sensex 30 stocks, up over 2 per cent each. Sun Pharma, SBI, Tata Motors, PowerGrid Corporation, Bajaj Finserv and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other prominent gainers.

On the other hand, Tata Steel dropped over 3 per cent, and IndusInd Bank slipped 2.3 per cent. Bharti Airtel and Infosys were the other notable losers.

The broader indices, however, ended on a tepid note. The BSE Midcap index was down 0.1 per cent, while the Smallcap index slipped 0.7 per cent.

Sectorally, the BSE FMCG, Oil & Gas, Realty and Power indices jumped over a per cent each, while the Metal index shed 2.7 per cent.

In the broader markets, Zee Entertainment soared over 9 per cent following reports that the media major was planning to settle its dues to IndusInd Bank worth Rs 83.7 crore as early as Friday.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “With the turbulence at Credit Suisse and ahead of the ECB policy announcement, investors’ attention has switched to developments in the European market. Consistently unfavourable signs in global markets are encouraging investors to move to safe havens such as the dollar and gold, while FIIs are withdrawing funds from the domestic market in response to the Indian rupee’s depreciation. Though the SVB & Credit Suisse crisis has eased, the market lacks the confidence to hold positions on contagion fears.”

Global Cues

Globally, the US markets were mixed overnight, with Dow Jones and the S&P 500 slipping up to 0.8 per cent. NASDAQ Composite, meanwhile, closed flat.

Asian stocks tumbled on Thursday, and investors bought gold, bonds and the dollar as fear of a banking crisis was reignited by fresh troubles at Credit Suisse, leaving markets on edge ahead of a European Central Bank meeting later in the day.