HOME > MARKETS > MARKET COMMENTARY
  MARKET COMMENTARY
EQUITY
Sensex, Nifty hover near neutral lines
Apr-25-2024

Indian equity benchmarks were hovering near their neutral lines in early afternoon deals, with both Sensex and Nifty holding slight gains, on the back of negative cues from other Asian markets along with heavy selling at Realty and Consumer Durables counters. Caution on eve of the expiry of April series derivative contracts also weighed on the sentiments. Traders were cautious, as credit rating agency, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that the demand for industrial credit from corporates with capex plans is expected to remain muted, due to strong cash flows, modular nature of investments and flexibility to tap equity markets. 

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mostly in red, even after Japan's leading index improved to the highest level in one-and-a-half years as initially estimated in February. The latest data from the Cabinet Office showed that the leading index, which measures future economic activity, rose to 111.8 in February from 109.5 in the previous month. That was in line with the flash data published on April 5. Further, this was the highest score since August 2022, when it was 112.9.  

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73874.46, up by 21.52 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 73556.15 and 74126.79. There were 19 stocks advancing against 11 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose by 0.23%, while Small cap index was up by 0.39%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were PSU up by 1.10%, Industrials up by 0.58%, Capital Goods up by 0.48%, Energy up by 0.34% and Oil & Gas up by 0.22%, while Realty down by 1.31%, Consumer Durables down by 0.97%, Consumer discretionary down by 0.23%, Basic Materials down by 0.20% and Metal down by 0.03% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up by 5.70%, SBI up by 2.55%, ITC up by 1.10%, Indusind Bank up by 0.83% and HCL Tech. up by 0.82%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 10.62%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.59%, Titan down by 1.51%, Bajaj Finance down by 1.16% and Maruti Suzuki down by 1.10% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Ashima Goyal has said that the problem of high food inflation will be ‘less severe’ in India going ahead, as modern supply chains with diversified sources can help quickly address sudden spikes in prices of specific food items. Stressing that the share of food in the household budget is high in India, she said policy needs to focus on increasing agricultural productivity, since stable agricultural prices are important for non-inflationary growth. 

Goyal further pointed out that one does not hear of tomato or onion prices spiking in advanced economies. She said ‘we naturally have diverse geographic regions, better integrated markets sourcing from different regions can help mitigate climate change induced food price spikes’. Moreover, as the weight of food in consumption falls and food consumption itself becomes more diversified, the impact and size of future food price shocks falls. She said that under flexible inflation targeting, expectations get better anchored.

Besides, she said India unfortunately opted for a distorting system of subsidies to farmers as well as to consumers and given India's huge population this was very expensive and reduced the space for government investment in agriculture. She said it also kept inflation high as procurement prices rose each year. She added that agricultural productivity is finally rising supported by a policy reset, along with the availability of new technologies even though further policy adjustment is required.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22407.20, up by 4.80 points or 0.02% after trading in a range of 22305.25 and 22475.55. There were 27 stocks advancing against 23 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Axis Bank up by 5.71%, SBI up by 2.60%, Hero MotoCorp up by 1.43%, ITC up by 1.04% and Coal India up by 1.04%. On the flip side, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 10.60%, LTIMindtree down by 2.68%, Hindustan Unilever down by 1.61%, Titan down by 1.59% and SBI Life Insurance down by 1.27% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Taiwan Weighted lost 274.32 points or 1.38% to 19,857.42, Jakarta Composite plunged 21.41 points or 0.3% to 7,153.12, Straits Times fell 11.9 points or 0.36% to 3,281.23, KOSPI dropped 47.13 points or 1.79% to 2,628.62 and Nikkei 225 slipped 831.6 points or 2.21% to 37,628.48, while Hang Seng advanced 75.61 points or 0.44% to 17,276.88 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 7.87 points or 0.26% to 3,052.69.
  RELATED NEWS >>
Most Viewed >>
May 02 , 2024
Smallcaps’ resilient show in April has 500 sto
May 03 , 2024
India's IPO market set to break May jinx in Lo
May 02 , 2024
BSE now corners a fifth of derivatives market
May 02 , 2024
Sebi allows FPIs in GIFT City to take more inv
EXPLORE
© CITRUS INTERACTIVE
Designed & Developed Accord Fintech Pvt. Ltd.