Thursday’s Indian stock market delivered a muted finish, as the Sensex closed 27.46 points lower at 82,248.61 and Nifty 14.05 points higher at 25,496.55. Defense sector’s sharp uptick, alongside healthcare gains, cushioned the benchmarks from steeper declines.
Nifty India Defense topped charts with 1.48% rise, Nifty Healthcare at 1.24%. Supporting advances came from Nifty Pharma (1.08%), PSU Bank (0.95%), Oil & Gas (0.87%), Auto (0.80%), India Manufacturing (0.78%), Metal (0.39%), and Infra (0.32%).
Downward pressure from Nifty Media (-0.68%), FMCG (-0.16%), Financial Services (-0.11%), and Services (-0.06%).
Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.66% to 59,798.15, outpacing the flat Nifty Smallcap 100 at 17,117.65.
Among Sensex constituents, BEL, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, SBI, TCS, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HUL, Titan, and Tech Mahindra advanced. Trent, Eternal, Powergrid, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, NTPC, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, T&T, HCL Tech, and M&M retreated.
Sudeep Shah from SBI Securities pointed to the Nifty’s narrow trading near session lows as a sign of investor vigilance. Resistance levels stand at 25,630-25,660, with 25,800 in sight above that. Downside support at 25,380-25,350.
Analysts anticipate volatility from macroeconomic releases, but defense stocks’ vigor points to thematic investing gaining traction.