Taking Stock: Sensex, Nifty rise a percent each; mid, smallcaps falter

Flagship indices the Sensex and the Nifty clocked strong gains to close at record highs on August 13, with support coming from bluechips across sectors.

The Sensex hit an all-time high of 55,487.79, while the Nifty scaled 16,543.60 in intraday trade as investors bought largecaps across sectors. The Sensex ended the session 593 points, or 1.08 percent, up at 55,437.29 and the Nifty settled with a gain of 165 points, or 1.01 percent, at 16,529.10.

The market opened in the green, tracking strong gains in the US markets overnight. Sentiment got an additional boost as CPI data on August 12 showed retail inflation in July eased. Lower inflation will give comfort to the RBI to keep rates lower and stance dovish for a longer time.

Mid and smallcaps underperformed their largecap peers. BSE Midcap and smallcap indices ended flat.

The pack of gainers in the Sensex was mixed with TCS, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries, HDFC twins and Infosys emerging on the top.

Power Grid, Dr Reddy's Labs, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance and NTPC ended as the biggest laggards.

The overall market-capitalisation of BSE-listed firms jumped to nearly Rs 240 lakh crore from Rs 239 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by Rs 1 lakh crore in a single day.

Barring BSE realty (down 0.79 percent), healthcare (down 0.76 percent) and utilities (down 0.45 percent), all sectoral indices ended in the green.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	85,267.66	449.53	+0.53%
Nifty 50	26,046.95	148.40	+0.57%
Nifty Bank	59,389.95	180.10	+0.30%

Nifty 50 26,046.95 148.40 (0.57%)

Fri, Dec 12, 2025

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
Hindalco	852.10	27.75	+3.37%

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
HUL	2,260.60	-45.00	-1.95%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty Metal	10536.50	269.60	+2.63%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty FMCG	54490.80	-128.85	-0.24%

BSE telecom, IT, energy, capital goods and teck indices closed over a percent higher each.

More than 200 stocks, including Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and TCS, hit their fresh 52-week highs on BSE in intraday trade.

Over 300 stocks, including Hindustan Oil Exploration, Nelco, HCC and Trident, hit their upper circuits on BSE in intraday trade.

On daily and weekly charts, the Nifty has formed a strong breakout continuation formation and the texture of the chart suggests an uptrend wave is likely to continue in the short run.

However, momentum indicators and intraday charts indicate a temporary overbought situation, and traders may prefer to take some profits near the 16,650-16,750 levels, Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities said.

According to Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research at CapitalVia Global Research, if the market sustains above 16,500, it can gain momentum and march to 16,700-16,750.

The market is taking comfort from the upbeat global markets and supportive domestic cues amid the fear of a third COVID wave. However, we are now seeing restricted participation and expect the same trend to continue, at least in the near future. We thus advise continuing with the “buy-on-dips” approach but focus largely on index majors and select midcaps for long trades.

We are of the view that the short-term trading setup is positive and the ideal strategy would be to buy on dips and sell on rallies. In the near future, 16,400-16,320 would act as a key support zone for the Nifty and trading above the same, uptrend momentum could persist up to 16,600-16,750.

On the flip side, a correction could be seen below 16,320, and can possibly trigger one more leg of downside up to 16,150-16,000.

On the sectoral front, the formation suggests large-cap IT and financial stocks would likely outperform in the near term.

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