Sensex Nifty closed with marginal gains near intraday high

Indian stock market indices opened lower today following weak global cues and the exposure of a front-running scam by a quant mutual fund.

However, after a rally in the first half of the session, the indices ended the day higher, offsetting the initial losses. Today's session saw a lot of volatility and the Nifty managed to hold the 23,500 level with some gains in auto, capital goods, power and FMCG sector stocks.

After opening 324 points down initially, the Sensex made an intra-day high of 77,423 and a low of 76,745. Thus, after a total fluctuation of 678 points, the index closed at 77,341 at the end of the day with a gain of 131 points or 0.17 per cent. After opening with a decline initially, the Sensex saw a steady rise and around eleven o'clock it climbed above the previous closing level. On the other hand, the Nifty opened 119 points down and made an intraday high of 23,558 and a low of 23,350. After a total fluctuation of 208 points, the index closed at 23,538 at the end of the day, up 37 points or 0.16 per cent. At the end of the day, the Sensex and Nifty closed close to their intraday highs, as far as the broader market was concerned, the BSE mid-cap index gained 170 points, or 0.37 per cent, to close at 46,137, while the small-cap index gained 141 points, or 0.27 per cent, to close at 52,077.

Today's top gainers include M&M, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, Ultra Tech Cement, ICICI Bank, ITC, NTPC and Bharti Airtel. These stocks registered a rise of up to three percent. On the other hand, top losers include IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank and SBI. These stocks registered a decline of up to 2.4 percent.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Media index closed 1.8 per cent lower, while the Metal index and PSU Bank index both declined 0.6 per cent. On the other hand, the Nifty Auto index closed 0.9 per cent higher. Meanwhile, India VIX, known as the fear gauge index, rose 6.65 per cent to close at 14.06.

Net selling by both FIIs and DIIs

Today FIIA Indian Stock Market recorded a net sale of Rs. 653 crores, while DII also recorded a net sale of Rs. 820 crores. With this, the figure of net sale made by FIIA in the month of June fell to Rs. 3,237 crores, while the figure of net purchase made by DII fell to Rs. 20,627 crores.