Sensex, Nifty close in red; JMC Projects zooms by more than 6 per cent, Aarti Drugs tumbles by almost 5 per cent

The domestic benchmark indices closed flat with a negative bias on Wednesday as Sensex declined by mere 37.38 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 38369.63. The Nifty closed at 11308.40 as it declined by 14.10 points or by 0.12 per cent.

Pharma stocks fell today and that resulted in the halt of domestic indices which were on a gaining streak.

Russia’s announcement of COVID-19 vaccine and recovering dollar saw gains in equity with profit booking at higher levels. This caused gold prices to tumble but the rising US-China tensions kept the fall of gold prices in check.  Gold futures on MCX were down by 2.75 per cent or Rs 1429 at Rs 50500 per 10 gram while Silver futures declined by 7.14 per cent or Rs 4776 to Rs 62158 per kg.

According to the government data made available today, India’s industrial production contracted by 16.6 per cent in June due to disruption in normal business activity following the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic. The decline in factory output was witnessed widespread across sectors like manufacturing, mining, power generation, capital goods and consumer durables.

The Sensex movers today include HCL Technologies gaining 4.86 per cent, SBI rose by 4.23 per cent, Tech Mahindra increased by 2.57 per cent, Maruti Suzuki gained by 1.25 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra increased by 0.86 per cent, UltraTech Cement increased by 0.84 per cent, NTPC gained by 0.79 per cent, etc.

The draggers were made up of Kotak Mahindra Bank which declined by 2.10 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell by 1.67 per cent, Bajaj Finserv fell by 1.27 per cent, Larsen & Toubro also decreased by 1.25 per cent, Bajaj Finance fell by 1.10 per cent, TCS declined by 0.99 per cent, Titan Company fell by 0.78 per cent, HUL decreased by 0.69 per cent, etc.

Amongst sectoral indices on BSE, the auto index was the biggest gainer up by 1.94 per cent while healthcare index was the biggest loser down by 1.46 per cent. The BSE Small-Cap index and BSE Mid-Cap index declined by 0.02 per cent and 0.02 per cent respectively.