SENSEX, NIFTY ENDS FLAT AS HEAVYWEIGHT STOCKS SEE DECLINE

Benchmark stock market indices closed flat on Tuesday, dragged down by a decline in financials and bank stocks, erasing gains made earlier in the day.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended flat at 79,441.45 while the NSE Nifty50 was down 0.07% at 24,123.85. Both indices had risen about 0.4% each to record high levels at the open.

"It's important to see that the market is overly stretched, requiring caution and vigilance rather than complacency," said Sameet Chavan, head of research at Angel One.

Indexes linked to financials, like banks, financial services, and private banks, lost 0.5%-1%. These sectors had gained 7%-8% in June.

The recent strong performance of financial and bank stocks, compared to the benchmarks, seems to have paused, said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking.

Kotak Mahindra Bank trimmed losses to 2.13% after clarifying that U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research was never an investor in its K-India Opportunities Fund.

Earlier in the session, the stock had lost about 4% after Hindenburg said a Mauritius-registered unit of Kotak Bank created and oversaw the offshore fund structure used by its investor partner to bet against the Adani group, in response to a show cause notice from India's markets regulator.

Auto stocks lost 0.76%, snapping a three-session winning streak. Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland shed about 2% after reporting a drop in June monthly sales.

IT stocks rose 1.17%, adding to their 2% jump on Monday after slightly cooler U.S. inflation data boosted expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in September.

Larsen & Toubro rose 2.83% on a report that the infrastructure major's unit got orders worth $4 billion from Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco.

2024-07-02T10:33:14Z dg43tfdfdgfd