The Indian stock indices faced a rollercoaster ride as financial sector woes triggered a sharp decline. The Sensex and Nifty, which had shown signs of gains in morning trade, struggled to maintain their foothold amidst a tumultuous session.

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The Nifty Bank index, in particular, faced a steep drop of nearly 600 points from its recent highs, with banking heavyweights like ICICI Bank and HDFC leading the losses.

While the BSE Sensex managed a modest rise of 11 points, reaching 65,087, the Nifty 50 crawled up by just 5 points to settle at 19,347.

The Nifty Bank's slid down by 263 points to 44,233, while the Midcap Index's advanced 283 points to 39,078.

Stock wise movements

Top gainers on the Nifty included Jio Financials, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Eicher Motors while the top losers were Power Grid Corporation, SBI , BPCL, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Hero MotoCorp.

Automotive stocks bucked the trend by displaying positive momentum, poised in anticipation of monthly data releases. Leading the pack was Maruti.

Escorts Kubota emerged as a standout performer with a remarkable 6 percent surge. This spike was attributed to reports hinting at the sale of their railway business.

IT stocks witnessed an upswing, riding on the coattails of a positive movement at the Nasdaq. The Nifty IT sector recorded a solid 1 percent gain, indicative of the sector's responsiveness to international trends.

BHEL, on the other hand, demonstrated a more than 3 percent gain, backed by robust trading volumes.

Shakti Pumps stock hit a upper circuit, surging by 20 percent due to the announcement of a significant Rs 358 crore order win.

However, not all sectors fared well, as oil marketing companies encountered headwinds following the government's announcement of an LPG price reduction. This led to a decline in stocks by around 1-2 percent.

Cement stocks, driven by expectations of price revisions, registered upward movement, with JK Cement leading the pack with a 3 percent rise.

TVS Motor rallied to a record high, gaining nearly 3 percent ahead of monthly sales data.

Chemical stocks continued their upward trajectory, with Aarti and Deepak Nitrite emerging as top gainers.

Amidst the market fluctuations, Jubilant Food and Indian Hotels managed to secure gains of 5-6 percent in anticipation of events such as G20 and the World Cup.

Expert view

"Domestic equities started on a strong note on the back of positive global cues. However, it witnessed profit booking in the last hour leading to Nifty giving up all its gains and closing flat at 19347. Broader market outperformed and continued its northbound journey with the Nifty midcap 100 up 0.7% and the Nifty smallcap 100 up 1 percent. Sectorial it was a mixed bag with buying seen in Realty, Metals, IT, Auto, and FMCG. Indian equities were positive for a major part of the day on account of the rally in the global markets on the increasing possibility of the US Fed taking a pause in its upcoming policy meet in September after the country reported weaker jobs data and falling consumer confidence. Locally, the market would keenly await the GDP data which is likely to remain strong. However given mixed global cues and derivatives monthly expiry, Nifty is likely to remain in consolidation mode while sector rotation would lead to stock-specific action," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Also read: Stock Market Highlight: Sensex, Nifty 50 give up gains, end flat dragged by financials

First Published:Aug 30, 2023 3:51 PM IST