Indian shares settled Monday’s volatile trading session with gains as the Street turned cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve interest rate decision on March 20.
The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex settled higher by 105 points, or 0.14%, at 72,748. The broader 50-share NSE Nifty50 rose by 32 points, or 0.15%, to close at 22,056. Metal and auto stocks led the gains, but IT and Teck shares capped the upside.
Index heavyweight
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) rebounded more than 1.5% from the day's low, lifting Sensex and Nifty. The oil-telecom-retail conglomerate settled 1.45% higher.
Tata Steel rose the most by 5% among Sensex gainers, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries and Maruti Suzuki among others.
IT shares declined amid investor worries over interest rates in the US market. Infosys fell the most by 2% among Sensex losers. Tata Consultancy Services, Titan, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle also declined.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge ended flat in the green, while the smallcap index ended flat in the red. Among sectoral indices, metal zoomed nearly 3%, auto gained over 1%.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹2,051.09 in equities today, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth ₹2,260.88 crore, according to the provisional data available on BSE.
The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will commence on March 19 and the policy rate decision will be announced on Wednesday.
First Published: Mar 18, 2024 5:42 PM IST
