Mumbai: The Sensex closed almost exactly where it opened, and Bank Nifty closed near a record. That gap is the story of Thursday's session.
The Sensex gained 31.61 points, or 0.04%, to 81,911.01. The Nifty50 added 44.30 points, or 0.18%, to 25,299.35, after touching 82,325.61 at its high. Bank Nifty jumped 726.10 points, or 1.19%, to 61,518.50, with every constituent in the green. The midcap index rose 520 points to 62,039 and the smallcap index added 1.12%.
It was the third straight gain, and the money behind it was foreign. Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth ₹12,563.33 crore on Wednesday, exchange data show, and it went into financials. Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank and Eternal led the Sensex pack; Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, Power Grid and TCS lagged.
Sectoral trends were mixed. Nifty Realty was the top gainer, up 3.7-4.5%, ahead of Media at 2.4% and PSU Bank at 1.4%. Auto fell 1%, pharma 0.57%, FMCG 0.88% and IT 0.4%. The market value of BSE-listed companies rose ₹1.57 lakh crore to ₹512.29 lakh crore.
The macro backdrop turned less friendly the same day. Retail inflation for October came in at 6.09%, past the RBI's 6% ceiling and the highest since October 2024, with food inflation at 8.94% and onion prices up 116.22%. The RBI raised the repo rate to 5.50% in October and meets next on December 2-4.
Brent fell 0.44% to $92.50 a barrel. The rupee slipped 33 paise to 94.04.
"Indian equities traded near flat as buying in financials and realty offset profit-taking in IT, FMCG and automobiles following the recent sharp rally," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments. "Strong foreign inflows remained the key support, reinforcing a large-cap financial rotation rather than broad index chasing."
Next: whether the financial-led gains broaden before the December policy meeting.