Market ends marginally lower in a choppy trading session

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 ended on a flat note on Tuesday as gains in oil, gas and financial shares supported the frontline indices, while IT and auto shares traded with losses.

Indian equity market finished marginally lower in the volatile session on February 21. At close on Tuesday, the Sensex was down 18.82 points or 0.03% at 60,672.72, and the Nifty was down 17.90 points or 0.10% at 17,826.70. On the BSE, around 1432 shares have advanced, 1939 shares declined, and 138 shares are unchanged.

Big Nifty gainers of the day were NTPC, Britannia Industries, Reliance Industries, Power Grid and Tata Steel, while losers included Adani Enterprises, Apollo Hospitals, Coal India, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto.

Sector-wise, PSU Bank and Realty were down 1% each, while selling was also witnessed in the oil & gas, metal, healthcare and IT names. In the broad markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap closed with marginal losses.

Here are the stock market highlights of the day:

• Shares of power companies were in demand as Power stocks rise as the government decides to take rising demand. NTPC leads the Nifty gainer 

• Reliance continued to lend support to Nifty while IT remains a major drag. 

• Adani Group shares closed on a mixed note with four stocks closing in the green and six in the red 

• Metal companies and steel names in particular rose as prices strengthen. Tata Steel jumped 1%.   

• Sun Pharma fell despite the company maintaining guidance in the analyst meeting. 

• HPCL lost more than 2% on reports of the company facing payment issues on Russian crude 

• Voltas jumped about 3% as the weather body indicates heat-wave alerts. 

• Shares of Siemens closed with a gain of 3% on a positive brokerage note 

• IEX, Astral and Marico were the top midcap companies while AB Fashion, Canara and BoB are the top losers.