Indian equity markets closed with negligible losses on Thursday, May 21, 2026, as the Nifty 50 settled at 23,654.70 — down a mere 4.30 points or 0.02% — while the Sensex shed 135.03 points, or 0.18%, to finish at 75,183.36. Both benchmarks traced wide intraday paths before pulling back from their highs, with the Nifty ranging between 23,596.60 and 23,859.90 and the Sensex swinging from 74,996.78 to as high as 75,945.79 during the session.
Among the broader sectoral indices, the losses were concentrated in banking and technology. Bank Nifty declined 122.80 points, or 0.23%, to close at 53,439.40, having touched an intraday peak of 54,109.15 before retreating. Nifty IT bore the steepest sectoral decline of the day, falling 164.05 points, or 0.56%, to end at 29,021.10 — the weakest showing across all indices tracked on the session.
On the other side of the ledger, realty was the standout performer. Nifty Realty surged 1.05%, adding 8.05 points to close at 775.10, making it the best-performing sectoral index of the day by a considerable margin. Nifty Auto gained 71.90 points, or 0.28%, to finish at 25,986.25, while Nifty Metal edged up 27.00 points, or 0.20%, to 13,213.50. Nifty Pharma added a modest 47.75 points, or 0.19%, settling at 24,890.90.
Among individual stocks, Wipro was the standout gainer within the Nifty 50, rising 1.33% to close at ₹199.74. Tata Steel followed with a gain of 0.76% to ₹208.58, while Sun Pharma advanced 0.59% to ₹1,891.30. UltraTech Cement climbed 0.57% to ₹11,474.00, and L&T rounded out the top five gainers with a rise of 0.46% to ₹3,928.50.
Bajaj Finance was the sharpest decliner on the day, tumbling 1.67% to ₹907.65. Hindustan Unilever shed 1.37% to ₹2,179.00, while Infosys fell 1.05% to ₹1,181.20 — contributing meaningfully to the drag on the IT index. ONGC declined 0.82% to ₹295.85 and Reliance Industries slipped 0.74% to ₹1,349.60.
Taking the full picture from the data, four of the six sectoral indices — Pharma, Auto, Metal, and Realty — closed in positive territory on May 21, while the headline benchmarks, Bank Nifty, and Nifty IT finished in the red. Gains were modest and broadly distributed, but selling pressure was relatively contained, with the Nifty’s headline loss amounting to just 4.30 points by the closing bell.
Market data sourced from Yahoo Finance. Prices reflect closing/last traded values as of Thursday, 21 May 2026, 3:30 PM IST. Data may be delayed by approximately 5 minutes. This article is for informational purposes only.
