Nifty fell for a second day on Thursday, barely holding the 24,000 mark and set
to possibly extend a third consecutive weekly decline. Sensex plunged about 3%
during a roughly 20‑minute closing call auction, intensifying concerns over thin
liquidity and potential price manipulation and likely prompting closer scrutiny
of the recently introduced closing auction price mechanism. Year-to-date Nifty
has lagged mid- and small-cap indices by more than 10 percentage points as
investors rotated downmarket into consumer tech, healthcare and
defense/aerospace supply-chain names. That trend may be reversing: with foreign
inflows resuming, large-cap profit growth is accelerating. Motilal Oswal data
show June-quarter profits for large-cap firms, excluding oil marketing
companies, rose 20% YoY — the fastest pace in ten quarters.
