Market ends flat, Nifty settles at 17,769; rail stocks rally up to 20%

After showing some strength in the afternoon session, the bulls gave up toward the end of the trade, thus causing benchmark indices to settle flat on April 25, 2023. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 60,130.71, up 75 points, or 0.12 per cent and the NSE's Nifty settled at 17,769.25, up 26 points, or 0.15 per cent.

Railway stocks buzzed the most during the day. For instance, Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) rallied 20 per cent to Rs 104.79 on the BSE while RITES jumped over 8.5 per cent. Texmaco Rail & Engineering shot up 6 per cent and Titagarh Wagons was up over 2.6 per cent.

Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers on the Sensex while HDFC duos and Tech Mahindra were the biggest laggards.

“Cautious optimism prevailed as sluggish to negative global markets' sentiment prompted traders to take selective bets in metals, oil & gas, and financial stocks. The bigger concern is that the rate hike cycle in the US and European nations is likely to continue, which may further push key economies into a slowdown phase and hurt growth," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities Ltd.

"On daily charts, the Nifty has formed a small Doji candlestick formation which indicates indecisiveness between the bulls and bears. A minor intraday correction is possible, if the index slips below 17,720 and retests the level of 17,670-17,625. On the flip side, a fresh uptrend wave is possible only after the dismissal of 17,820. Post breakout, the chances of the index hitting 17,900-17,925 would turn bright," Chouhan added.

The broader market, too, settled flat.