MUMBAI — Indian equity markets closed almost flat but in the green on Monday, November 9, staging a late recovery from a deep midday slide, as gains in public-sector banking and pharma stocks supported the benchmarks. At the close, the S&P BSE Sensex settled at 81,106.65, rising 107.25 points or 0.13 per cent, while the NSE Nifty 50 gained 58.25 points or 0.23 per cent to end at 25,044.65, PTI reported, with the same closing levels recorded in Upstox's market wrap published at 3:52 pm.

Source: Upstox market wrap

The close completed a sharp intraday round trip. The Sensex traded between a high of 81,339.41 and a low of 80,519.31, and the Nifty between 25,084.05 and 24,838.75. By 1:21 pm the Nifty had been down 104.60 points at 24,881.80 and the Sensex down 362.13 points at 80,637.27, as IT, metals and cement selling overwhelmed banking and pharma gains, The Hindu BusinessLine reported at midday.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

How the session looked at midday, when the indices were deep in the red and the rupee was at a 2026 high, is in our midday markets report

PSU banks and pharma lead; IT, steel and cement drag

State Bank of India was the biggest contributor to the Nifty's close, rising 2.56 per cent, followed by Trent (up 2.02 per cent), Nestle India (1.91 per cent), NTPC (1.87 per cent) and Larsen & Toubro (1.82 per cent). Public-sector banks including SBI, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda led the Nifty PSU Bank index, which outperformed the benchmarks, and the Nifty Pharma index touched a new high of 29,224.85 during the session, Upstox reported.

Source: Upstox market wrap

On the losing side, Tata Steel fell 2.81 per cent, HCL Technologies 2.43 per cent, UltraTech Cement 1.79 per cent, ITC 1.64 per cent and Bajaj Finance 1.56 per cent. Of the 50 Nifty stocks, 21 closed higher, 28 declined and one was unchanged. Market breadth on the NSE favoured declines — 1,959 of 3,698 traded stocks fell against 1,629 advances — while the broader market still ended positive, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.55 per cent at 61,022.55 and the Smallcap 100 up 0.1 per cent at 19,185.05. India VIX, the volatility gauge, fell 5.79 per cent to 17.36, and the market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at Rs 502.21 lakh crore, Upstox reported.

Source: Upstox market wrap

Rupee ends higher; Asia mostly green, crude softer

The rupee rose 5 paise to close at 93.93 (provisional) against the US dollar, PTI reported, after touching its strongest level since April, around 93.70, during the session. A decline in crude oil prices, with global crude touching a low of $96 a barrel on Monday, also kept sentiment positive, and Asian markets mostly ended in the green tracking a recovery on Wall Street — Japan's Nikkei jumped 2.32 per cent and Taiwan's Weighted Index soared 4.7 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.15 per cent, Upstox reported. Foreign investors had bought a net Rs 38,971 crore of Indian equities so far in November, as of November 8, NSDL data cited by Upstox showed.

Source: PTI via Dailyworld / Upstox

What happens next: Indian markets are closed on Tuesday, November 10, for Diwali-Balipratipada, so the next regular trading session is on Wednesday, November 11 — a pause that will show whether pharma's record run and the PSU-bank strength hold once trading resumes.