Taking Stock | Market ends lower for the second day; Sensex down 461 points, Nifty below 18,300

The Indian market ended lower for the second straight session on December 16, with the 30-pack Sensex falling 461.22 points, or 0.75 percent, to end at 61,337.81, while the broader Nifty shed 145.90 points, or 0.79 percent, to close at 18,269.

After a weak start, the market made recovery but remained under pressure amid selling across sectors and closed near the day's low.

"Global markets extended their rout as the ECB and BoE followed the Fed in raising policy rates by half a percent while maintaining a hawkish tone on inflation," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The aggressiveness of central banks in combating inflation has raised concerns about the global economy's health. “Despite attempts to recoup losses, a lack of global support pushed the indices back into negative territory," he added.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, M&M, Adani Ports, Asian Paints and BPCL were among the biggest Nifty losers, while gainers included Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, HUL, Tata Steel and JSW Steel.

All sectoral indices ended in the red, with the Nifty auto, information technology, pharma and PSU bank down 1-3 percent.

The BSE midcap and smallcap indices lost a percent each.

On the BSE, auto, capital goods, healthcare, information technology, power and realty indices were down 1-1.5 percent, while bank, metal and oil & gas indices slipped 0.5 percent each.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	85,125.29	195.93	+0.23%
Nifty 50	26,085.25	118.85	+0.46%
Nifty Bank	59,069.20	0.00	+0.00%

Nifty 50 26,085.25 118.85 (0.46%)

Mon, Dec 22, 2025

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
No Biggest Gainer details available.

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
HCL Tech	1,641.80	-0.60	-0.04%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty FMCG	54781.35	0.00	+0.00%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty Infra	9557.20	0.00	+0.00%

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 300 percent was seen in Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Balrampur Chini Mills and Tata Motors.

A short build-up was seen in Polycab India, India Cements and Glenmark Pharma, while a long build-up was seen in Balrampur Chini Mills, Coforge and PI Industries.

More than 100 stocks touched their 52-week high on the BSE, including Taj GVK Hotels, Ugar Sugar Works, Rico Auto Industries, Raymond, Maxheights Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, Jyoti and Indian Overseas Bank.

Stocks at Dalal Street went for a toss, along with other global markets, amid the chatter that the US Federal Reserve may not change its hawkish tune so soon. The dot plot showed that the terminal rate projection rose to 5.1 percent from 4.6 percent in September.

Inflation remains a key concern and central banks across the globe will try hard to fight against it. Technically, the Nifty’s next key support is seen at the psychological 18,001 mark, while the immediate hurdle is at 18,697.

The risk-off sentiment continued on Dalal Street as the Fed's hawkish comment-induced global correction gave local investors a reason to further reduce equity exposure. Foreign investor selling seemed to have once again gathered pace, which has reflected badly on local stocks in the last few sessions. While there was no respite from the bears, Dow Futures witnessing a steep fall dampened the market sentiment leading to a broad-based selling.

Technically, lower top formation on daily charts and double top reversal formation on intraday charts indicate further downside from the current levels.

The Nifty not only broke the important support level of 18,400 but also closed below it. The next support would be the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) or 18,100-18,000 levels. On the flip side, 18,400 could act as immediate resistance and above it, the index can retest the 20-day SMA or 18,550. In case of further upside, the index could move up to 18,700.

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