Closing Bell: Market snaps 4-day losing streak led by gains in Banking and Financial stocks

Indian markets broke the four-day losing streak and ended higher supported by the banking heavyweights. 

Domestic equity benchmarks snapped their four-day losing streak on Monday, October 25, 2021, led by gains in banking stocks of ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India. But the upside was capped owing to selling pressure in Infosys, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Finserv. During today's trading session benchmark indices traded in a volatile manner with Sensex moving in a band of over 900 points and Nifty touching an intraday high of 18,241.

At the closing bell, the Sensex was up 145.43 points or 0.24% at 60967.05, and the Nifty was up 10.50 points or 0.06% at 18125.40. On advance-decline, around 971 shares have advanced, 2276 shares declined, and 174 shares remain unchanged.

Top gainers on the Bombay Stock Exchange were ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. The top losers of the day were Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto and HCL Technologies.

On the sectoral front, except the banking sectoral, all other sectoral indices ended in the red with auto, IT, FMCG and Realty indices were down 1-2%. In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell over 1% each.

Among the buzzing stocks today was the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) which came under intense selling pressure after the stock came out of the National Stock Exchange's futures and options ban list on Monday. Shares of IRCTC fell as much as 14.32%to hit an intraday low of ₹ 3,960.05.

ICICI Bank was the top gainer, as the stock jumped after the bank reported a 29.6% rise in net profit to Rs 5,511 crore on a standalone basis for the July-September quarter in the financial year 2021-22, compared to Rs 4,251.3 crore in the year-ago period.