Muhurat Session Ends Flat; Sun Pharma Leads Gains

Sensex close: It ended the special Muhurat session at 80,999.40, down 28.62 points (0.04%), against Friday’s close of 81,028.02. Nifty close: The Nifty50 ended at 24,986.40, down 43.95 points (0.18%), slipping back below 25,000. Early strength faded: The session started strongly, with the Sensex hitting a high of 81,442.11, up 414.09 points (0.51%), but it gave up all of those gains by the close. Opening movers: M&M, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Titan and ICICI Bank rallied 4-5% on Nifty at the open, but M&M ended among the Sensex’s biggest laggards. Top gainer: SUNPHARMA led the Nifty gainers, followed by Tata Steel, ONGC, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Adani Ports, with the top five rising up to about 3%. Top loser: SBI Life Insurance led the Nifty laggards, with declines of up to 1.11% among the bottom five. Other losers: IndiGo, Bharti Airtel, Max Healthcare and Infosys also fell, and in the Sensex pack M&M, Trent and Axis Bank lost ground. Sectors: Pharma and metals did better, while some of the stocks that led last week’s rally, such as M&M, IndiGo and Trent, saw profit-taking.