The Indian equity markets witnessed a highly cautious, range-bound session on Thursday, finishing virtually unchanged as investors held back from making big bets. Market participants chose to stay on the sidelines in anticipation of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision scheduled for Friday morning. Reflecting this collective hesitation, the BSE Sensex closed marginally up by just 13.84 points (0.02%) at 74,360.01, while the NSE Nifty 50 ticked higher by a minor 10.95 points (0.05%) to settle at 23,416.55.
Market analysts highlighted that Nifty’s 23,500 mark has emerged as a crucial psychological and technical hurdle for short-term trends, with significant supply and call option writing heavily clustering around that territory. A decisive breakout above this zone could potentially clear a path toward the 23,600 and 23,800 levels. Conversely, the immediate downside remains protected by a steady support cushion placed around 23,300 to 23,350, followed by a much more resilient demand zone near 23,150, which has repeatedly attracted buyers during recent intra-day dips.
The session’s sluggishness among large-cap benchmarks was driven by downside pressure in select heavyweights like Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, and Hindalco Industries. Sector-wise performance was mixed, with export and commodity-aligned blocks—particularly Nifty IT, Metals, and Chemicals—facing selling pressure, while domestic consumer-oriented sectors like Nifty Media and Consumer Durables bucked the trend. Proving that interest remained alive under the surface, mid-cap and small-cap indices outperformed the main boards, gaining 0.46% and 0.49% respectively as traders await the central bank’s upcoming commentary on interest rates and liquidity management.
