Stock Market Highlights | Sensex, Nifty pare gains to close flat; midcaps, smallcaps under pressure

Stock Market Highlights: Indian markets failed to hold on to their opening gains and ended largely lower on Tuesday, with weakness in IT, telecom, metal and energy stocks weighing on sentiment. The Nifty slipped below the 23,250 mark, dragged by Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco and Reliance, while the broader market underperformed.The Sensex rose 64 points to close at 73,983, while the Nifty fell 27 points to 23,215. The Nifty Bank index declined 94 points to 55,100 and the Midcap index tumbled 905 points to 59,810. Market breadth remained firmly in favour of declines, with the NSE advance-decline ratio at 1:3.

Among sectors, the Nifty IT index ended lower for the sixth straight session, with all constituents closing in the red except TCS. In contrast, the Nifty FMCG index emerged as the top gainer, led by a 2% rise in Nestle India.

In stock-specific action, Oil India fell more than 10% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘overweight’. Nucleus Software rose 12% on a partnership with Azentra Solusi Digital, while Clean Max jumped 10% after announcing a partnership with Meta. Newgen Software declined over 3% after its CEO resigned.

Among midcaps, Oil India, NLC India, Kalyan Jewellers and Indian Bank were the top losers. Kalyan Jewellers slipped 5%, while PC Jeweller fell 2% as gold prices declined.

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