Buying at lower levels helped benchmark indices recover from the day’s lows and end largely flat in a volatile session on August 13, with the Nifty settling around the 24,400 mark. Selling pressure in banking, metal and pharma stocks was largely offset by buying in FMCG, IT and realty stocks.

After a flat opening, bears took charge in the first half, dragging the Nifty to an intraday low of 24,311.40. However, buying in the afternoon session helped the index recover most of its losses and close on a flat note.

At close, the Sensex rose 113.61 points, or 0.15%, to 78,079.96, while the Nifty fell 40.10 points, or 0.16%, to 24,395.85.

The broader market outperformed, with both Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices ending with modest gains.

Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index declined 1% and Private Bank index fell 0.5%, while Realty gained 1% and Consumer Durables rose 0.45%.

Among Nifty stocks, Tata Consumer, Tata Motors PV, HUL, NTPC and Shriram Finance were the top gainers, while Hindalco, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, Grasim and Power Grid Corp led the losses.

Among individual stocks, Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles shares rose more than 3% after strong Q1 earnings, while Thyrocare Technologies declined 6.5% after 1.32 crore shares changed hands in a block deal.

Astral rose 9% after profit jumped 51.8%, while Sun TV Network advanced 2% on strong earnings. Black Box jumped 7% after bagging a Rs 1,240 crore order. MIDHANI surged nearly 9% following S-400 approval from GE Aerospace, whereas Page Industries fell 3% after Q1 profit declined.