Realty roars, pharma follows; Sensex, Nifty end flat; SMIDs take a hit

Stock market closing bell, Wednesday, April 30, 2025: Shares of real estate companies roared on Dalal Street on Wednesday, emerging as top gainers even as benchmark indices ended the session with marginal gains amid volatility. Pharma stocks followed suit and settled higher, defying the market sentiment, while other sectoral indices ended broadly in the red, with PSU banks dragging the most.    Pressure was more pronounced in the broader markets, with small-cap shares falling the most.

 

At the close, the BSE Sensex stood at 80,242.24, down by 46.14 points or 0.06 per cent, while the NSE Nifty50 slipped marginally by 1.75 points or 0.01 per cent to end at 24,334.20.

 

 

HDFC Life, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki India, SBI Life, and Sun Pharma were among the gainers on the Nifty50, ending higher in the range of 0.89 per cent to 4.19 per cent. Conversely, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Trent, Tata Motors, and State Bank of India were among the top Nifty50 constituents that lagged, ending with losses of up to 5.61 per cent.

Mid, Smcallcap shares fall 

 

The Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indices settled lower by 1.71 per cent and 0.85 per cent, respectively. Kfin Technologies (6.76 per cent), Five-Star Business Finance (6.16 per cent), CreditAccess Grameen (5.95 per cent), Exide Industries (5.81 per cent), and BSE (4.55 per cent) were among the top laggards from the mid and smallcap space.

Realty stocks rally, PSU banks fall 

Among the sectoral front, the Nifty Realty index climbed 3.6 per cent during intraday trade before settling at 885.85, up 1.91 per cent. Barring Prestige Estates Projects and Anant Raj, all the other eight constituent stocks of the index settled higher, led by Macrotech Developers (2.85 per cent), Sobha (2.06 per cent), and Godrej Properties (1.92 per cent). The Nifty Pharma index settled with gains of 0.44 per cent, led by JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals (1.82 per cent) and Lupin (1.20 per cent).

 

That said, PSU Banks were the worst hit among the sectors as their index ended down by 2.23 per cent, dragged by UCO Bank and State Bank of India, which ended down by over 3 per cent each. Other sectoral indices on the NSE also ended in the red, barring Nifty Auto, which showed some resilience and ended with gains of 0.04 per cent.  

Stock-specific strategy advised amid volatility

Though the broader market performed well this month, driven by reduced tariff risks, a potential US-India trade deal, and strong FII inflows, momentum, said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Investments, is being capped by rising tensions between India and Pakistan and muted Q4 results. "This negative bias is expected to persist in the near term, but the long-term outlook remains positive due to the minimal financial impact from the conflict. Consequently, any market consolidation is likely to be used as an investment opportunity," said Nair.

 

Meanwhile, Ajit Mishra – SVP, research, Religare Broking – believes that the rotational buying in heavyweight stocks across sectors is helping to cushion the downside. Looking ahead, Mishra believes markets will take cues from global developments on Friday, particularly the US GDP data and corporate earnings. "In this context, we continue to recommend a stock-specific trading approach, with a focus on buy-side opportunities," said Mishra.

Technical view

Technically, the market is consistently facing selling pressure near the 24,450-80,500 resistance zone, and it has formed a double top pattern on intraday charts, which supports temporary weakness from current levels. Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities, believes that as long as the market trades below 24,450-80,500, weak sentiment is likely to continue.  "On the downside, the market could retest the 24,000-79,300 level. Further downward movement may continue, potentially dragging the index to 23,900-79,000. On the flip side, a breach above the 24,450-80,500 level could change sentiment. Above this level, the market could move up to 24,600-24,700/81,000-81,300," said Chouhan.