Sensex, Nifty Pare Losses in Afternoon Trade as Consumer Durables Rally; ZEEL Jumps 8% on SAT Relief

Indian equity benchmarks trimmed a chunk of their earlier losses in afternoon trade on Friday, helped by buying in consumer durable stocks even as banking and metal counters stayed under pressure. As of 2 pm, the Sensex was down around 82 points, or 0.1%, at roughly 77,998, while the Nifty50 slipped about 12 points, or 0.05%, to near 24,383. Both indices had fallen considerably more sharply earlier in the session, with the Sensex briefly down over 300 points from the day's high before recovering.

Consumer Durables Lead, Metals Lag

Sector moves were mixed through the session. The Nifty Consumer Durables index was among the best performers, while Nifty Metal underperformed after a sharp two-day slide driven by profit-taking in names such as Nalco and Sail. In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap index was trading about 0.45% lower and the Smallcap index around 0.55% lower, suggesting the pressure was more pronounced outside the largecap space.

Public sector bank shares were among the weakest pockets on the index, with Bank of Maharashtra, State Bank of India and Indian Bank among the top Nifty50 laggards. IT stocks also weighed on sentiment, with LTIMindtree, Tech Mahindra and Coforge among the session's biggest losers in that basket. On the Nifty50, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Max Healthcare Institute and Hindalco Industries were among the top decliners.

Zee Entertainment Surges on Tribunal Relief

The standout mover of the day was Zee Entertainment Enterprises, which jumped as much as 8% to its intraday high after the Securities Appellate Tribunal stayed a Securities and Exchange Board of India order against the company and granted it interim relief, allowing Zee to proceed with a planned warrant issuance. The relief is conditional on the company depositing the penalty amount the regulator had imposed.

Elsewhere, Krsnaa Diagnostics rose over 5% even though the company reported a decline in its June-quarter net profit, as investors focused instead on a more than 22% year-on-year rise in revenue for the period. A clutch of companies also released first-quarter results through the day, adding to a busy earnings calendar that has kept traders occupied through the first half of August.

Commodities and Broader Cues

Away from equities, silver prices were expected to stay firm with an upward bias in the near term, with some analysts flagging a possible move toward $68 an ounce as expectations of US interest rate cuts firmed up. Market participants continued to track global crude oil prices and the ongoing standoff over shipping access through the Strait of Hormuz as a swing factor for sentiment, alongside the steady stream of June-quarter earnings from India Inc.

Brokerages remained divided on the near-term trajectory for the market. Some research desks pointed to a mild two-month recovery rally and floated the possibility of high single-digit percentage upside for the Nifty by the end of the year if global cues stay supportive, while cautioning investors to be selective, particularly around richly valued legacy technology names.

With the session still open, traders said the tug-of-war between strength in consumption-linked stocks and weakness in banks, metals and IT was likely to keep the indices range-bound into the close, with stock-specific action around quarterly results continuing to dominate individual price moves.

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