FINAL TRADE: Stocks take a pause after two-day rally; Nifty holds 19,800; Sensex ends in red

Stock market today: India's benchmark indices finished flat on Thursday, November 23, after a two-day rally amid weakness in healthcare and IT stocks. The NSE Nifty 50 index closed at 19,802, down 9.85 points or 0.05 per cent and the S&P BSE Sensex ended flat at 66,017.81, down 5.43 points or 0.01 per cent. Barring Nifty 50, all other broad-based indices ended in green. Nifty Midcap 100 ended flat, while Nifty Smallcap 100 ended 0.7 per cent higher. Among sectorial indices, the high bank index—Nifty Bank—ended 0.29 per cent higher at 43,577.50 amid the choppy trade.

Moreover, the Nifty Auto index finished at 17,033.55, up 0.36 per cent or 61.35 points after the index notched a fresh high of 17,067.95 after global brokerages raised the target on three of the two-wheeler majors, signifying its optimism in the space.

In addition, Cipla, UltraTech Cement, SBI Life, and LTIMindtree were among the top losers, down around 1–8 per cent. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, BPCL and IndusInd Bank were among the top gainers in the Nifty basket, trading with gains of around 1–5 per cent. 

"Range-bound momentum continued on main indexes as the market looked for new triggers for a decisive move beyond the 19,800 level. However, broad markets’ undercurrent is strong, and rapid buying has emerged in the mid- and small-cap counters as bargaining strategies arose on recent underperforming stocks," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The declining oil prices and ease in US bond yields are the key positives for a broader recovery for the market, Nair added.

Global Market

European shares inched higher at open on Thursday as investors awaited minutes of the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest meeting and the euro zone's PMI data for clues on the region's monetary policy path.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.2 per cent, extending gains after notching a two-month high in the previous session. Investors will keenly watch the ECB's release of the October policy meeting minutes for any cues on the central bank's interest rate trajectory while Wall Street is closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

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