Nifty, Sensex dip on F&O expiry; FMCG falls; Pharma, metals show resilience

Stock market closing bell, Thursday, April 24, 2025: Benchmark equity indices ended their 7th day of the winning streak, weighed down by profit booking across the counters on Nifty's monthly F&O expiry for April, on Thursday. Profit booking was seen among the broader basket too as Mid-small cap shares ended with marginal losses.  Among sectoral markets, FMCG and consumer durables faced selling pressure after Hindustan Unilever (HUL) posted a slight dip in its Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) margin year-on-year (Y-o-Y). Among others, Realty, financial services, IT, banks, and auto stocks ended lower, while pharma, metal, media, and healthcare managed to eke out some gains. 

 

The benchmarks—BSE Sensex shed 315.06 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 79,801.43, and NSE Nifty50 dropped 82.25 points or 0.34 per cent to 24,246.70.

 

1,441 out of the 1,930 traded stocks on NSE ended in the red, 104 in the green, while 85 remained unchanged. The total market capitalisation of NSE stocks stood at $5 trillion (₹427.93 lakh crore).

 

Among individual stocks, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Eicher Motors, ICICI Bank, and Eternal (formerly Zomato) were the top laggards of Nifty50 constituents, ending lower by up to 4.12 per cent. On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Ultratech Cement, Grasim, Dr. Reddy's Labs, and Cipla were the top gainers, managing to eke out gains of up to 3.17 per cent.

 

Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 indices were down by 0.13 per cent and 0.04 per cent, respectively.

 

Among sectoral indices, Nifty FMCG ended lower by 1.06 per cent, dragged by Hindustan Unilever, United Breweries, and Varun Beverages, which ended in the range of 3 per cent to 4 per cent.  The Nifty Realty Index also ended lower by 1.41 per cent, dragged by Macrotech Developers (down 3.25 per cent) and Prestige Estates Projects (down 2.18 per cent).

Market consolidation to continue 

The domestic market, Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, said, mirroring its global counterparts, witnessed mild profit booking after the recent rally as market participants scaled back the possibility of a quick resolution of tariff disputes between the US and China.

 

"FMCG majors’ Q4 results were weak, impacted by subdued volumes and margin pressure, which led the sector to underperform. However, benign input prices and improvements in urban & rural demand are expected to revive the sector, which is available at reasonable valuations," said Nair.

 

Meanwhile, Ajit Mishra – SVP, research at Religare Broking – calls the phase of consolidation in the Nifty50 in line with expectations and suggests it may continue in the coming sessions. "Therefore, we recommend maintaining a focus on stock selection and using market dips as buying opportunities. Following their recent outperformance, banking and financial stocks may see some consolidation," said Mishra.

 

Meanwhile, sectors like PSEs, metals, and pharmaceuticals, Mishra believes, could attract renewed interest.

Technical view

Technically, after a muted opening, the market experienced narrow range activity. On the daily charts, it has formed an inside body candle formation, indicating indecisiveness between bulls and bears. Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities, believes that the short-term market texture is bullish, but a fresh uptrend rally is only possible after breaching the 24,350/80,100 resistance zone. 

 

"Above this level, the market could move up to 24,450-24,500/80,400-80,500. On the other hand, if the market falls below 24,200/79,600, we could see a quick intraday correction down to 24,100/79,300," said Chouhan. Further downside, he said, may also continue, which could drag the market down to 24,000/79,000. 

 

The current market texture is non-directional; hence, Chouhan suggested that level-based trading would be an ideal strategy for day traders.