Sensex, Nifty Drift Lower On F&O Dec Expiry Session

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended flat in listless trading on Thursday amid a lack of near-term triggers and unabated foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex dipped 0.39 points to settle at 78,472.48 in a muted trade. During the morning trade, it had jumped 425.5 points or 0.54 per cent to 78,898.37. The NSE Nifty eked out gains of 22.55 points or 0.1 per cent to 23,750.20 on the monthly expiry day.

“However, concerns over FII outflows and the depreciating rupee persist, given the strengthening US dollar index and worries about potential adverse tariffs and concerns over rate cuts in 2025, held the muted market trend,” Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE smallcap gauge dipped 0.24 per cent while midcap index went up marginally by 0.11 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE services jumped 1.80 per cent, auto climbed 0.81 per cent, power (0.45 per cent), healthcare (0.45 per cent), realty (0.39 per cent) and consumer discretionary (0.23 per cent). BSE commodities dipped 0.30 per cent, industrials (0.12 per cent), telecommunication (0.16 per cent), metal (0.14 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.04 per cent) and bankex (0.04 per cent).

From the 30 blue-chip stocks, Titan, Asian Paints, Nestle, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Zomato, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards. Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were among the gainers. “On the last expiry day of the year, the domestic market remained flat throughout the day amidst holidays in peer markets and a lack of major domestic or global triggers. Auto shares saw gains from recent corrections.

In Asian markets, Tokyo and Shanghai settled in the positive territory while Seoul ended lower. US markets were closed on Wednesday for Christmas. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,454.21 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.