Stock market ends volatile session slightly lower ahead of GST Council meet

Mumbai, Sep 2 The Indian equity indices settled in negative territory after a volatile session on Tuesday. Optimistic expectations around GST rationalisation and the affirmative SCO summit buoyed the market momentum in the early trading hours but it lost the gains amid profit booking, as investors turned cautious ahead of the GST Council meeting and F&O expiry.

Sensex closed at 80,157.88, down 206.61 points or 0.26 per cent. The 30-share index started the session with a decent gap-up at 80,520.09 against last session's closing of 80,157.88, buoyed by the affirmative SCO summit and strong GST collection data. The index escalated further to touch an intra-day high at 80,761.14; however, it fell into negative territory amid profit booking.

Nifty ended the session at 24,569.60, down 45.45 points or 0.18 per cent.

"Domestic equities reversed early gains from strong macro data, ending lower on profit booking amid caution ahead of the GST Council meeting and F&O expiry, with banking stocks leading the decline," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.

Sugar stocks rallied on relaxed ethanol norms, while export-oriented companies gained following dovish remarks by the US, renewing trade optimism. However, investors remain guarded, with a near-term focus on domestic consumption amid global uncertainty, he added.

Mahindra and Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, Tata Motors, Trent, Ultratech Cement, L&T, HDFC Bank, Bharati Airtel, and Axis Bank were the top gainers. PowerGrid, NTPC, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, BEL, Bajaj FinServ, Eternal and ITC settled in positive territory.

The majority of sectoral indices fell into negative territory after being in green for most of the trading hours. Nifty Auto fell 75 points or 0.29 per cent, Nifty Bank slipped 341 points or 0.63 per cent, and Nifty Fin Service decreased 170 points or 0.66 per cent. Nifty IT closed flat, while Nifty FMCG surged 631 points or 1.12 per cent.

Broader indices remained buoyed during the session. Nifty Midcap jumped 151.90 points or 0.27 per cent, Nifty Small cap 100 escalated 93 points or 0.53 per cent, while Nifty 100 settled flat.

Rupee traded slightly positive at 88.16 with gains of 0.05 as optimism around India’s GST reduction move is expected to support consumption and partially offset the negative impact of ongoing tariff pressures.

"However, the dollar remained firm at 98.30, keeping overall pressure intact on emerging currencies, while crude also traded positive at $65.95, which may add some near-term weakness bias to the rupee," said Jateen Trivedi of LKP Securities.

With FIIs still cautious and maintaining their selling stance, volatility is expected to remain. For the near term, the trading range for the rupee can be seen between 87.85 – 88.40, Trivedi added.

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