Indian stock markets ended flat on Tuesday following a volatile trading session. Investors continued to book profits as the benchmarks hovered near all-time highs.
The Sensex gained 99.56 points, or 0.12 percent, closing at 81,455.40, while the Nifty added 21.20 points, or 0.09 percent, to settle at 24,857.30.
During the session, the BSE Sensex peaked at 81,815.27, and the Nifty 50 reached a high of 24,971.75.
Top gainers on the Nifty included BPCL, NTPC, Tata Motors, Power Grid Corp, and Asian Paints. Cipla, LTIMindtree, SBI Life Insurance, Grasim Industries, and Sun Pharma saw the largest declines.
Sectorally, the Nifty Consumer Durables index led with a gain of 1.12 percent, while Nifty FMCG, Nifty IT, Nifty Pharma, and Nifty PSU Bank indices closed in the red.
“The broad market valuations are currently high, but sectors with strong growth prospects, such as manufacturing, electronics, IT, renewables, healthcare, e-commerce, infrastructure, agriculture, and consumption, remain attractive,” said Antu Thomas, Senior Research Analyst at Geojit Financial Services.
” Some areas are expensive, so it’s crucial to focus on stock fundamentals, avoid overvalued stocks, and adopt an accumulation strategy,” Thomas added.
In the commodity market, oil prices fell on Tuesday, extending their previous session’s decline due to concerns over demand in China, the world’s largest crude importer, and diminishing fears of escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Gold prices held steady as investors awaited the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and a series of upcoming U.S. data releases that may provide further insights into the rate-cut timeline.
(Inputs from agencies)