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Barometers end higher for 4th straight day; Nifty above 23,850 mark
Apr-17-2025

Indian equity benchmarks surged nearly two per cent on Thursday, registering their fourth day of rally, as investors cheered news of progress in U.S-China trade talks and remained hopeful that both the Reserve Bank of India and the U.S. Federal Reserve will slash interest rates in the coming months. The Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been buyers in two consecutive sessions also contributed to the positive mood. The FIIs bought equities worth Rs 3,936.42 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Some of the important factors in today’s trade:  

US remains India’s top trading partner for 4th straight year in FY25: The US being export heaven for Indian exporter, the recent government data showed that the US remained India's largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25 with bilateral trade valued at $131.84 billion, while the country's trade deficit with China widened to $99.2 billion during the same period.

India to grow 6.5% in 2025: The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said India’s economy is projected to grow by 6.5% in 2025, supported by strong public spending and continuing monetary easing. Despite a slowdown from the estimated 6.9% growth in 2024, India is forecast to be the fastest growing economy.

GeM facilitates Rs 5.42 lakh crore transactions in 2024-25: Public procurement platform Government e-Market Place (GeM) has facilitated transactions worth Rs 5.42 lakh crore in 2024-25 due to increasing buying by different ministries and state-owned units, according to the commerce ministry data. 

Rupee gains against US Dollar: Indian rupee strengthened for the fourth consecutive session and closed with strong gains against the US dollar, on the back of foreign fund inflows in domestic equities and broad weakness in the greenback. 

Global front: European markets were trading lower as investors fretted about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's erratic trade policies on inflation, interest rates and global growth. Asian markets settled mostly higher amid hopes of re-negotiated reciprocal tariffs on US trade partners in the region, with Japan making positive progress in trade talks with the U.S. 

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 1508.91 points or 1.96% to 78,553.20, and the CNX Nifty was up by 414.45 points or 1.77% to 23,851.65.    

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 78,616.77 and 76,665.77 respectively. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.56%, while Small cap index was up by 0.52%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Bankex up by 2.56%, Telecom up by 2.22%, TECK up by 1.19%, Energy up by 1.13% and PSU up by 1.03%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Eternal up by 4.37%, ICICI Bank up by 3.68%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.63%, Sun Pharma up by 3.50% and SBI up by 3.28%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 0.24% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.04% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings has cut India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate for both the 2024-25 fiscal and the current 2025-26 fiscal by 10 basis points (bps) to 6.2 per cent and 6.4 per cent, respectively, on concerns over a 'severe' escalation in global trade war. For the 2026-27 fiscal year, growth has been retained at 6.3 per cent. Fitch said it is hard to predict US trade policy with any confidence. It said massive policy uncertainty is hurting business investment prospects, equity price falls are reducing household wealth, and US exporters will be hit by retaliation. 

Fitch also cut the world growth projections in 2025 by 0.4 percentage points and China and US growth by 0.5 percentage points from its March edition. Fitch Ratings' forecasts for world growth have been sharply lowered in response to the recent severe escalation in the global trade war. World growth is projected to fall below 2 per cent this year; excluding the pandemic, this would be the weakest global growth rate since 2009. The GDP growth rate of the United States is expected to remain positive at 1.2 per cent for 2025. China's growth is expected to fall below 4 per cent both this year and next, while growth in the eurozone will remain stuck well below 1 per cent, as per Fitch projections. It said the US 'Liberation Day' tariff hikes were far worse than expected. 

It said while subsequently paused and replaced with a near-universal 10 per cent rate for 90 days, the shock prompted several rounds of retaliatory moves between China and the US, taking bilateral tariff rates over 100 per cent. The US average effective tariff rate (ETR) has risen to 23 per cent, the highest since 1909 and well above the 18 per cent Fitch assumed in March. Fitch now assumes the US ETR on China will remain above 100 per cent for some time before falling back to 60 per cent in 2026. It said ‘for now, we stick with our March assumption of a 15 per cent US ETR on other trade partners’.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 23,872.35 and 23,298.55. There were 43 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.   

The top gainers on Nifty were Eternal up by 4.47%, Sun Pharma up by 3.77%, ICICI Bank up by 3.73%, Bharti Airtel up by 3.31% and Bajaj Finserv up by 3.14%. On the flip side, Wipro down by 4.14%, Hindalco Industries down by 0.31%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.30%, Hero MotoCorp down by 0.26% and JSW Steel down by 0.14% were the top losers.  

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 54.6 points or 0.66% to 8,221.00, France’s CAC fell 59.52 points or 0.81% to 7,270.45 and Germany’s DAX lost 134.17 points or 0.63% to 21,176.85.

Asian markets settled mostly higher on Thursday, despite Wall Street’s steep losses overnight as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that trade tensions might undermine employment and price stability. Chinese shares gained after China said it is ready to restart trade talks with the Donald Trump administration, provided that certain key conditions are fulfilled. Among the primary demands, China has called for more respect, a consistent trade policy, and attention to its concerns on sanctions and Taiwan. Japanese shares improved after US Trump said negotiators made big progress in talks to strike a tariff deal with Japan, while a weak yen also supported sentiment. Seoul shares rose after South Korea's central bank kept its interest rate unchanged but hinted at possible cuts in May amid rising economic risks partly spurred by US tariffs.

Asian Indices

Last Trade            

Change in Points

Change in %      

Shanghai Composite

3,280.34

4.34

0.13

Hang Seng

21,395.14

338.16

1.58

Jakarta Composite

6,438.27

38.22

0.59

KLSE Composite

1,483.27

6.35

0.43

Nikkei 225

34,377.60

457.20

1.33

Straits Times

3,720.33

57.88

1.56

KOSPI Composite

2,470.41

22.98

0.93

Taiwan Weighted

19,338.73

-129.27

-0.67
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