FINAL TRADE: Nifty finishes 5 pts shy of 21,550; Sensex closes 31 pts higher; Bajaj Auto ends 2% higher

Stock market today: After an impressive rally in the intraday session, the benchmark indices on Tuesday, January 9, made a sharp U-turn in the last hour of trade and barely managed to settle in the green, shedding most of the day's gains. A fall in financial stocks led to a flat close, although gains in IT stocks provided much-needed support. The Nifty index ended 31.85 points, or 0.15 per cent, higher at 21,544.85 and the Sensex closed the session flat at 71,386.21, up by 30.99 points, or 0.04 per cent.

The high-beta Nifty Bank index, whose 12 constituents include SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, ended 207.60 points, or 0.44 per cent, lower at 47,242.65, amid selling in AU Small Finance Bank and IDFC First Bank.

Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports, SBI Life, and Apollo Hospitals were among the top gainers in the Nifty basket, trading with gains of around 3-2 per cent. On the other hand, Britannia, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle India, and HDFC Life were among the top losers, down around 1 per cent. 

Nifty Small Cap 100 and Nifty Mid Cap 100 finished in green, up 0.44 and 0.16 per cent respectively.

"Positive sentiments in the Indian IT sector, fuelled by a US tech rally and demand for emerging technologies, overshadowed the anticipated muted Q3 results of the sector. Auto and real estate continued to remain favourites on account of strong demand," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

"Market optimism about the potential softening of US inflation is driving expectations of near-term rate cuts, bolstering overall sentiment. But in-between profit booking is emerging due to mixed cues from Asian markets as well as high valuation concerns," Nair added.

Global Market

European equities slipped on Tuesday, weighed by the losses in technology and financial stocks, with investors anticipating more economic data to assess the European Central Bank's monetary policy for the year.

The pan-European STOXX 600 lost 0.2 per cent as of 0930 GMT, with technology and banks leading declines, down 0.9 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively. Weighing on the sentiment, German industrial production unexpectedly fell in November from the previous month, marking the sixth consecutive monthly decline.

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