Today's stock market: Sensex plummets 1% while 200 stocks, including M&M and HCL Tech, reach their one-year highs on the BSE

Stock market today: Almost 200 equities on the BSE reached new one-year highs, defying the general lackluster sentiment in the market.

Today's stock market: In intraday trading on the BSE on Friday, January 3, nearly 200 equities reached new one-year highs, despite the Indian stock market benchmark Sensex plunging more than 700 points, or about 1%.

The stocks that reached their 52-week highs on the BSE on Friday included United Spirits, Eicher Motors, PB Fintech (PolicyBazaar), Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), HCL Tech, and Info Edge (Naukri).

Among the equities that reached their one-year highs on the BSE were Coromandel International, Ipca Laboratories, Muthoot Finance, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Radico Khaitan, and Welspun Corp.

Today's Indian stock market

The Sensex ended the day at 79,223.11, down 721 points, or 0.90 percent. The Nifty 50 closed at 24,004.75, down 184 points, or 0.76 percent.

The benchmarks were exceeded by the mid and small-cap indices. The BSE Smallcap index closed nearly flat, down 0.02 percent, while the BSE Midcap index fell 0.33 percent.

As the underlying sentiment remains cautious due to signs of economic growth losing steam, expectations of weak earnings, stretched valuations, foreign capital outflows, and uncertainty over US trade policies following Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, the domestic market benchmarks experienced losses on profit booking in a few heavyweights.

Friday's decline seems to be a typical pause after the recent recovery, according to Ajit Mishra, SVP-Research at Religare Broking. It may continue until the Nifty clearly breaks over the next resistance level at 24,250.

In accordance with sectoral trends, we still advise concentrating on stock-specific opportunities. Positions should be adjusted to reflect the predicted short-term outperformance of industries like FMCG, auto, and energy, Mishra said.