Market Commentary - Mid-Session
The key equity benchmarks traded moderate losses in mid-morning trade as investors awaited the RBI's monetary policy decision later in the week amid ongoing trade war concerns. The Nifty traded below the 23,650 mark. FMCG shares extended losses for the fourth consecutive trading session. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty 50 F&O series expiry today.
At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, tumbled 311.56 points or 0.41% to 77,953.88. The Nifty 50 index declined 90.30 points or 0.38% to 23,606.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.37% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.44%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,955 shares rose and 1,682 shares fell. A total of 171 shares were unchanged.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty FMCG index shed 0.65% to 56,014.45. The index declined 2.44% in the four consecutive previous trading sessions.
Varun Beverages (down 2.32%), Radico Khaitan (down 1.61%), ITC (down 1.09%), Nestle India (down 0.37%), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.21%), and Colgate-Palmolive (India) (down 0.15%) declined.
On the other hand, ITC Hotels (up 1.23%), Godrej Consumer Products (up 1.08%), and Marico (up 0.96%) added.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Aarti Pharmalabs surged 7.95% after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 40.2% to Rs 73.99 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 52.76 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations grew 19.9% to Rs 537.78 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.
Avalon Technologies hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company's consolidated net profit surged 265.1% to Rs 23.99 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 6.57 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 31.1% to Rs 280.85 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.
Triveni Engineering & Industries rallied 3.15% after the company signed a MoU with Rolls-Royce Marine North America Inc. to explore collaboration on 4MW marine gas turbine generators (GTG) for customers in India.
Global Markets:
Asian stocks climbed on Thursday, mirroring gains in US stocks and bonds. This positive movement comes despite a week marked by trade tensions, underwhelming tech earnings, and mixed US economic signals.
The yen strengthened against the dollar for a fourth consecutive day, fueled by remarks from Bank of Japan official Naoki Tamura, who suggested Japanese interest rates could reach 1% in the latter half of fiscal year 2025.
Market attention now turns to Friday's US jobs report and its potential impact on Federal Reserve policy.
US indices advanced on Wednesday, supported by lower Treasury yields after purchasing managers index data indicated a slowdown in the US economy, particularly within the manufacturing sector. The ISM Services PMI fell to 52.8 in January from 54.0 in December, missing expectations for a reading for 54.0. This data fueled speculation that a moderating US economy might encourage the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates, even with inflationary pressures stemming from trade tariffs. Separately, better-than-expected ADP nonfarm employment data unsettled markets due to its potential to foreshadow a robust nonfarm payrolls figure for January. Private payrolls increased by 183,000 during the month, according to data from payrolls processor ADP, above the expected 148,000 growth.
Apple Inc. saw a slight dip after reports surfaced of Chinese scrutiny of its App Store. Chipmakers, notably Nvidia, provided significant uplift to Wall Street, particularly following indications from Alphabet and its competitors of substantial increases in spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2025. However, Alphabet shares fell over 7% due to weaker-than-anticipated cloud revenue, a segment closely linked to AI.
The NASDAQ Composite underperformed other major indices, closing with a 0.2% gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.4%.
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