Final Trade: Equities indices end lower dragged by heavyweights; Nifty closes below 25,000, Sensex falls 168 pts

Indian equities after a solid start ended in the red amid fag end sell-off primarily dragged by heavyweights.  At the close, the 30-share Sensex ended with a decline of 0.21 per cent or 167.71 points at 81,467.1, while the Nifty ended below 25,000 levels at 24,981.95, down 0.12 per cent or 31.2 points.

Bank Nifty, the high beta index, which gained up to 1 per cent after RBI's MPC meet outcome ended in the red with a marginal drag led by losses in HDFC Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, IndusInd Bank and Federal Bank among others.

Meanwhile, broader markets remained resilient, with the smallcap index leading the gains up over 1 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services on markets performance said, "An upward revision in Q3FY25 inflation reiterates that the sticky inflation continues to remain a concern for the RBI and led investors to book profit towards the close

The volatility in input prices and the impact on margin dragged the FMCG stocks. The change in RBI's stance to neutral was favourable and expected, but the commentary is not pointing for a rate cut in the near term.

Meanwhile, the investor’s sentiment is buoyed on the broad market taking opportunity on a stock-to-stock basis, to capitalise from the recent correction, he added.

Sectorally, FMCG, oil & gas and private bank indices ended in the red, while all other indices logged gains, with the most gains logged by the realty index.

Also, the pharma index logged its fresh 52-week high in intra-day trade, with YTD gains on the index now at over 57 per cent.

Crude prices amid spike in US inventory retreated from their highs and last the brent crude hovered near 78 per barrel mark. The RBI in its inflation and GDP forecast made today while delivering the MPC outcome has assumed to around $80 per barrel for the 2HFY25.