Sensex, Nifty 50 end flat ahead of Bihar election outcome— 10 key highlights from the Indian stock market today

The Indian stock market benchmarks- the Sensex and the Nifty 50- ended flat on Thursday, November 13, on profit booking after the recent gains, with focus on the Bihar election 2025 results. The Sensex ended at 84,478.67, up 12 points, or 0.01 per cent, while the Nifty 50 settled at 25,879.15, up 3 points, or 0.01 per cent. The mid and small-cap segments underperformed as the BSE Midcap index fell 0.34 per cent and the Smallcap index declined 0.30 per cent.

Indian stock market: 10 key highlights from the day

1. Why did the Sensex, Nifty 50 end flat?

Extending gains to the fourth consecutive session, the Sensex jumped 453 points to hit an intraday high of 84,919.43, while the Nifty 50 reclaimed the level of 26,010.70 during the session. However, both indices failed to hold gains due to profit booking ahead of the Bihar election 2025 outcome on Friday.

The market expects the NDA to retain power in Bihar. The majority of exit polls have predicted a decisive victory for the NDA. However, exit polls have historically been inaccurate, and experts believe that the actual election outcome, contrary to market expectations, may trigger a short-term selloff in the market.

According to brokerage firm Incred Equities, NDA's loss in the Bihar elections could trigger a realignment at the Centre, which may cause stock market volatility, bring the benchmark Nifty 50 down by 5-7 per cent.

"Amidst continued outflows from FII and a weak rupee, profit-booking emerged at elevated levels ahead of the Bihar election results, which left the benchmark indices largely unchanged by the close," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments, noted.

2. Top gainers in the Nifty 50 index today

Shares of Asian Paints (up 3.77 per cent), Hindalco Industries (up 2.47 per cent), and InterGlobe Aviation (up 2 per cent) ended as the top gainers in the Nifty 50 index.

3. Top losers in the Nifty 50 index

Shares of Eternal (down 3.69 per cent), Tata Motors CV (down 2.84 per cent), and Mahindra and Mahindra (down 1.46 per cent) ended as the top losers in the index.

As many as 29 stocks ended in the red in the Nifty 50 index.

4. Sectoral indices today

Sectoral indices ended mixed on Thursday. While Nifty PSU Bank (down 0.68 per cent), Media (down 0.55 per cent), FMCG (down 0.51 per cent), IT (down 0.48 per cent), and Auto (down 0.37 per cent) ended lower, Nifty Metal (up 0.44 per cent), Realty (up 0.42 per cent), and Pharma (up 0.41 per cent) ended with decent gains.

Nifty Bank rose 0.18 per cent, while Nifty Financial Services rose 0.22 per cent.

5. Most active stocks in terms of volume

Vodafone Idea (139.1 crore shares), Billionbrains Garage Ventures (Groww) (53.5 crore shares), and Tata Steel (8.2 crore shares) were the most active stocks in terms of volume on the NSE.

6. Eight stocks jump more than 15% on BSE

Vindhya Telelinks, Precision Wires India, and Precision Wires India were among the eight stocks that jumped more than 15 per cent on the BSE.

7. Advance-decline ratio

Out of 4,367 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,846 advanced, while 2,380 declined. Some 141 stocks remained unchanged.

8. 131 stocks hit 52-week highs

Some 131 stock, including Asian Paints, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Canara Bank, and Vedanta, hit their 52-week highs in intraday trade on the BSE.

9. 128 stocks hit 52-week lows

As many as 128 stocks, including Deepak Nitrite, Orient Cement, H.G. Infra Engineering, Cohance Lifesciences, and Chemplast Sanmar, hit their 52-week lows in intraday trade on the BSE.

10. Nifty's technical outlook

According to Sudeep Shah, Head - Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, the 25,760–25,730 zone will act as an immediate support area for the Nifty 50.

Shah said a break below 25,730 could trigger profit booking toward 25,560.

On the upside, the 26,000–26,030 zone will act as a key resistance, and a sustained move above 26,030 could open the gates for further upside toward 26,180 in the near term, said Shah.

Shrikant Chouhan, the head of equity research at Kotak Securities, said the 20-day SMA (simple moving average) at 25,750 would act as a crucial support zone.

"As long as the market is trading above this level, the bullish momentum is likely to continue. On the higher side, 26,000 would act as an immediate resistance zone for the bulls. A successful breakout above 26,000 could push the market up to 26,100. On the flip side, if the market falls below the 20-day SMA at 25,750, it is likely to retest the levels of 25,650-25,600," said Chouhan.

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