Stock Market Highlights: Sensex, Nifty end flat, broader indices mixed ahead of Powell's speech

Stock Market Highlights on Friday, August 23: At closing bell, the BSE Sensex was at 81,086.21, up by 33.02 points. Nifty 50 was at 24,823.15, up marginally by 11.65 points

Stock Market Highlights, Friday, August 23: Indian benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended Friday's rangebound trading session slightly higher as investors awaited clues about possible interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in this year, from a scheduled speech by US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell at the ongoing Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in the US.

At closing bell, the BSE Sensex was at 81,086.21, up by 33.02 points, or 0.04 per cent, while the broader Nifty 50 was at 24,823.15, up marginally by 11.65 points, or 0.05 per cent. 

Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, and ICICI bank were the top gainers on the BSE Sensex, while Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, Asian Paints, Titan, and Infosys, were the top drags. 13 of the 30 stocks on the BSE Sensex ended in the red. 

Similarly, on the broader Nifty50, Bajaj Auto, Coal India, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, and Sun Pharma were the top gainers, while LTIMindtree, Wipro, ONGC, Asian Paints, and Titan were the top drags. 

Meanwhile, Auto was the only sectoral gainer, closing higher by 1.12 per cent. 

In contrast, the Realty index shed 2.24 per cent, followed by the Media and and IT indices, that closed lower by around 1 per cent.