Four sessions into the NSE's Closing Auction Session, the Sensex-Nifty gap reflects concentrated institutional order flow in Nifty names, a research analyst said.
The divergence between India's two main stock benchmarks widened for a fourth straight session on Thursday, as the NSE's new Closing Auction Session (CAS) continued to reshape how the Nifty prices its final print.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 373.76 points, or 0.48%, to 78,954.76, boosted by Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank. The 50-share NSE Nifty added just 11.35 points, or 0.05%, to end at 24,636, after trading in a range of barely 73 points.
The gap reflects a structural shift in price discovery, not a transitional quirk, said Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, founder and CEO of HST Wealth, a research analyst firm. Four sessions into the CAS mechanism, institutional order flow concentrates more heavily in Nifty constituents than the Sensex basket, making the Nifty's close more sensitive to auction-driven pricing, he said.
Since Monday, stock exchanges have been using the Closing Auction Session to determine closing prices for stocks that carry futures and options contracts. The change replaced the old volume-weighted average price method with a five-minute call auction that matches buy and sell orders at a single clearing price.
Reliance Industries rose 3.43%, the biggest gain among Sensex blue chips. State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics, ICICI Bank, and Titan also posted gains. Power Grid Corporation of India fell 3.99% after reporting a marginal year-on-year dip in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,598.42 crore for the June quarter. Tata Consultancy Services, InterGlobe Aviation, and Mahindra & Mahindra were also among the laggards.
Brent crude edged up 0.09% to USD 79.52 a barrel. Moderation in crude prices, aided by diplomatic efforts to restore stability in the Strait of Hormuz, supported sentiment, said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments Limited. The RBI's steady policy stance and constructive growth outlook also prompted selective buying in banking and energy stocks, he said.
The Reserve Bank of India held its benchmark repo rate at 5.25% for the fourth consecutive meeting on Wednesday, keeping its stance "neutral." Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the next move on rates and stance will be data-dependent. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee raised the GDP forecast for the current fiscal to 6.7% and lowered the inflation projection to 5%.
In Asian markets, South Korea's KOSPI fell 4.58%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 1.49%, and Japan's Nikkei 225 ended 0.93% lower. Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 943.42 crore on Wednesday, exchange data showed.
The IBN stock page carries an Alpha Score of 57/100, labeled Moderate, in the Financial Services sector.
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