Metal, IT, realty propel Sensex by 320 pts, Nifty above 24,830; SMIDs gain

Stock market closing bell, Thursday, may 29, 2025: Buying across the metal, IT, and realty sectors towards the end of the day helped the benchmarks, which witnessed a lackluster session earlier, settle on higher levels on Thursday. Market analysts suggest that the recovery in the market toward the end of the session was also fuelled by the F&O expiry-led covering.

 

Notably, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50, before turning flat, started today’s session with gains, buoyed by the news that a three-judge panel at the New York-based US Court of International Trade blocked President Donald Trump from imposing 'sweeping' tariffs on imports, citing an emergency-powers law. 

 

 

That said, the rally extended to the broader markets as well, with the midcap and smallcap indices posting gains of over half a percent.

 

At the close, the BSE Sensex stood at 81,633.02, up 320.70 points, or 0.39 per cent. The index fluctuated in the range of 81,816.89 - 81,106.98.

 

Mirroring the Sensex, the Nifty50 added 81.15 points, or 0.33 per cent, to settle at 24,833.60, after trading in the range of 24,889.70 - 24,677.30 on Thursday.

 

IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Eternal, Adani Ports, and Trent were the top gainers among the Nifty50 constituent stocks ending higher in the range of 2.47 per cent-1.65 per cent. Conversely, HDFC Life, Bharat Electronics, Tata Consumer, Jio Financial, and Bajaj Finance were the top laggards ending lower in the range of 0.62 per cent - 1.07 per cent on Thursday. 

 

The market breadth turned positive, with 1,510 out of 2,947 traded stocks on the NSE ending in the green, while 1,373 closed lower and 64 remained unchanged.  Meanwhile, a total of 106 stocks hit their upper circuit limits on the NSE, while 81 stocks touched their lower circuit limits. At the close, the market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies stood at $5.16 trillion.

 

Meanwhile, the fear index (India VIX), which gauges volatility in the markets, ended lower by 8.86 per cent at 16.42 points. 

SMIDs shine

The broader markets followed the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 indices settling higher by 0.55 per cent and 0.59 per cent, respectively. Welspun Corp (0.75 per cent), Waaree Energies (8.36 per cent), Garden Reach Shipbuilders (8.07 per cent), and Cummins India (6.52 per cent) were among the top gainers in the space.   

Metal, Realty outperform; FMCG, PSBs drag

Barring Nifty FMCG (down 0.13 per cent) and Nifty PSU Bank (down 0.24 per cent), all the sectoral indices ended with gains on Thursday. Among them, Nifty Metal and Realty outperformed others by ending higher by 1.21 per cent and 1.14 per cent, respectively. This was followed by Nifty Pharma and IT indices, which settled with gains of 0.92 per cent and 0.77 per cent, respectively.

Experts weigh in

Global sentiment, Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Investments, said, improved after a US court struck down Trump’s reciprocal tax policy. However, the domestic market remained mostly rangebound during the day due to rising oil prices and higher US 10-year bond yields. Nair attributed the recovery toward the end of the session to the F&O expiry-led covering.

 

Echoing similar views, Prashanth Tapse, senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities, said, "While markets witnessed sideways movement in the first half, key indices rebounded on selective buying amid short covering on the monthly derivatives expiry day." Tapse believes that strong Asian and European cues also aided sentiment, even as investors await the release of the minutes of the US FOMC meeting.

 

That said, Nair expects the markets to witness consolidation in the short term. "Lack of positive domestic triggers and a drop in industrial output to an eight-month low could lead to short-term market consolidation," Nair added.

Technical View

Technically, after an early intraday correction, the market found support near 24,675/81,100 and bounced back sharply. Additionally, on daily charts, it has formed a reversal formation near the 20-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), which Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities, believes is largely positive.

 

"We are of the view that 24,700/81,200 and 24,650/80,900 would act as key support zones for traders. If the market sustains above these levels, the chances of hitting 25,000/82,200–25,100/82,600 would become brighter," said Chouhan.

 

However, a break below 24,650/80,900 could shift the sentiment. In such a scenario, Chouhan advised traders to consider exiting their long positions.