Indian equities wrapped up a lackluster Thursday with the Sensex down 27.46 points at 82,248.61 and Nifty up a slim 14.05 points to 25,496.55. The flat close masked underlying strength in select pockets, particularly defense and healthcare sectors, which buoyed the indices.
Defense stocks stole the show, with Nifty India Defense gaining 1.48%. Healthcare followed suit at 1.24%, alongside advances in pharma (1.08%), PSU banks (0.95%), oil & gas (0.87%), auto (0.80%), manufacturing (0.78%), metals (0.39%), and infra (0.32%).
Weak spots emerged in media (-0.68%), FMCG (-0.16%), financial services (-0.11%), and services (-0.06%).
Broader markets showed divergence: Nifty Midcap 100 surged 0.66% to 59,798.15, but Nifty Smallcap 100 was nearly unchanged at 17,117.65.
Sensex top performers were BEL, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, SBI, TCS, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HUL, Titan, and Tech Mahindra. Draggers included Trent, Eternal, Powergrid, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, NTPC, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, T&T, HCL Tech, and M&M.
According to Sudeep Shah of SBI Securities, the Nifty’s tight range-bound trading near lows signals wary investors. Resistance looms at 25,630-25,660, with a break potentially targeting 25,800. Key support is at 25,380-25,350.
As traders eye policy announcements and international developments, the defense sector’s outperformance highlights its role as a market stabilizer in uncertain times.