The Indian stock market exhibited sideways movement on Wednesday, January 22, as the Sensex managed to regain the 76,000 mark and Nifty hovered around the 23,100 level. This recovery followed a significant 2% drop in the previous session, marking a seven-month low for both benchmarks. Despite broad-based selling pressure, the market was mainly driven by gains in IT stocks. Leading IT companies like TCS, Infosys, and Tech Mahindra witnessed impressive gains, rising between 2.2% and 2.5%, contributing to the overall positive sentiment.
However, sectors such as banking, consumer durables, realty, oil & gas, media, and metals continued to face heavy selling, dragging down market performance. Notably, Tata Motors, NTPC, SBI, Power Grid, Tata Steel, and Zomato were among the top decliners, with losses ranging from 1% to 2.5%.
The broader market showed a weaker trend, as the BSE Sensex Next 50 index tumbled by 1,000 points. Out of the 3,888 stocks listed on BSE, 2,839 stocks declined, while only 902 stocks advanced, and 147 stocks remained unchanged. Despite this, the Sensex gained 234 points, reaching 76,072.84. The total market capitalization of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 420.07 lakh crore.
In the early trading session, the Sensex had surged by 442.5 points, hitting an intraday high of 76,280.85, but the upward momentum faced some resistance as the market struggled to maintain the gains. Investors are watching for further signs of market direction, especially with the volatility across various sectors.
