Indian equity benchmarks remained under pressure for the fifth straight session on July 24, with the Nifty slipping near the 23,600 mark amid weak global cues. However, the indices staged a sharp recovery from intraday lows, supported by buying in select heavyweight stocks.


Investor sentiment remained subdued as the escalating Middle East conflict pushed Brent crude above $100 a barrel. Despite the weakness, the Nifty50 rebounded from its intraday low of 23,606.30, while the Sensex recovered to close above the 76,000 mark, trimming a large part of the day's losses.

At close, the Sensex was down 331.62 points or 0.43 percent at 76,059.77, and the Nifty was down 102.15 points or 0.43 percent at 23,767.45.

For the week, BSE Sensex and Nifty fell 2.5 percent each.

The broader markets also recovered from their intraday lows, with the Nifty Midcap 100 ending on a flat note, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 closed 0.3 percent lower.

On the downside, Nifty Auto was the worst-performing sector, falling 1.10%, followed by Nifty Metal, down 0.55%, Nifty Energy, which slipped 0.57%, Nifty Realty, down 0.55%, Nifty Oil & Gas, which declined 0.46%, Nifty Pharma, down 0.4%, Nifty Infra, which eased 0.4%.

Nearly 100 stocks touched 52-week low including Go Digit, UTI AMC, JSW Holdings, Reliance Industries, Cello World, IRFC, Jubilant Food, Gujarat Energy, Tata Elxsi, among others.

The Indian rupee erased all its intraday gains and ended flat 96.57 per US dollar against the previous close of 96.57.

Among individual stocks, Infosys declined 1% despite reporting a 12.2% year-on-year rise in Q1 net profit to ?7,769 crore, while InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo) slipped 0.5% after posting a Q1 loss of ?238 crore. Suryoday Small Finance Bank fell 2% despite its Q1 profit more than doubling, and Meesho also shed 2% even as it reported a sharp narrowing of its quarterly loss.