Closing Bell: Bears grip Dalal Street; realty index gains

Indian benchmark indices closed lower for the third consecutive session on Friday.

Major dragging sectors were consumer durables, information technology, Pharma, and FMCG. While the Realty, PSU Bank, Oil & gas sector gained amid weak market. Also, the market remained volatile on account of the amplified geopolitical tensions. The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market volatility went down by 2.09 per cent to 23.43 levels. 

The Nifty 50 index closed in the bear trap dropping by 69 points and closing at 17,153 levels. Bank Nifty has also fallen by 117 points and ended the day at 35,410. The top winning stocks were Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, SBI Life Insurance, Asian Paints, and Reliance Industries. The major losing stocks were Titan, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Indian Oil Corporation, and Eicher Motors. 

The BSE Sensex went down to close in red at 57,362 tumbling by 233 points. Similarly, the BSE MidCap index has dropped today by 85 points and ended the day at 23,789 levels, BSE SmallCap has gone downwards by 92 points to close at 27,800 at day end. On the BSE Sensex today, the top stocks were SBI Life Insurance, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Bharti Airtel. On the other hand, the top losers were Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Nestle India, TCS, and HCL Technologies.  

The total stocks traded today were 3,510 out of which 1,329 advanced and 2,078 stocks declined, 103 stocks were unchanged. The number of stocks that were locked in the upper circuit is 19. The numbers of stocks that have made a 52-week high are 132 and 39 stocks made a 52-week low today.