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Informist, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025

MUMBAI – Benchmark equity indices ended higher Thursday, extending their winning streak for the third consecutive session, led by some banks and financial services stocks, alongside gains in some large-cap stocks such as Reliance Industries Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Indices had briefly dipped into the red in late afternoon trade, but rose again in the last half hour of trade to recoup almost half their earlier gains. Analysts attributed this to Thursday being the expiry of the Nifty 50's January futures contract and the weekly options contracts. The brief fall in the Nifty 50 was due to investors booking some of the profits ahead of the expiry, Kshitija Salvi, technical analyst at IDBI Capital Markets & Securities, said. The recovery was attributed to covering of short positions.

The Nifty 50 ended at 23249.50 points, up 86.40 points or 0.4% and the BSE Sensex ended at 76759.81 points, up 226.85 points or 0.3%. The Nifty 50 had risen 159 points intraday, but closed only 86 points higher. Broader market indices ended mixed after trimming their earlier gains. The Nifty Smallcap 250 index ended 0.2% lower, while the Nifty Midcap 100 ended marginally lower. All other Nifty small-cap and mid-cap indices ended slightly higher. These indices were up around 1% early in the session.

Investors also digested the outcome of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee kept the federal funds target range unchanged at 4.25-4.50%. This was after it had cut rates in the past three meetings. Policymakers reiterated their concerns regarding inflation still being somewhat elevated. The hawkish comments indicated the Fed was likely to keep interest rates steady at its next meeting in mid-March.

Other large-cap stocks such as Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, and M&M ended up 1.4-2.5%, and were among the top contributors to the rise of the Nifty 50. HDFC Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. ended up almost 1% and 0.5%, respectively, each pushing the Nifty 50 higher by around 0.1%. 

Shares of Bajaj Finance gained almost 2% after the company's consolidated net profit of INR 42.47 billion for the December quarter beat the Street's view. However, shares of Bajaj Finserv gave up early gains to end 2.5% lower after the company's on-year growth in consolidated net profit was the slowest in 12 quarters due to a large net loss on fair value changes and expenses growing faster than the top line. The stock was up over 2% before the announcement of the earnings. 

Shares of Bharat Electronics rose more than 4% and ended as the top gainer in the Nifty 50 after its Oct-Dec net profit comfortably beat the Street's view. On the other hand, Tata Motors plunged more than 7% to hit an over 13-month low of INR 683.20 earlier in the session after its December quarter net profit fell more than 22% on year to INR 54.51 billion, falling short of analysts' estimate of INR 64.02 billion. The stock limited the rise of the Nifty 50 by 0.1%. 

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Realty gained nearly 2% with The Phoenix Mills, Godrej Properties, Macrotech Developers, and Oberoi Realty all ending over 2% higher. On the other hand, the Nifty Consumer Durable was the worst hit, declining nearly 2%. This was due to Voltas and Whirpool of India declining heavily. Voltas lost almost 14% after the company's bottom line came lower than analysts' expectations. Meanwhile, shares of Whirlpool hit the 20% lower circuit in early trade after its parent company Whirlpool Corp. said it would sell 31% stake in the company. 

Among other stocks, shares of Suzlon Energy hit the 5% upper circuit in early trade. Shares of KPIT Technologies ended up 4.6% despite a sequential fall in its consolidated net profit for the December quarter, as the company raised its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation margin guidance for 2024-25 (Apr-Mar). Hitachi Energy India also hit a 20% upper circuit after the company's quarterly net profit jumped sixfold on year. On the other hand, shares of Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corp. and Computer Age Management Services closed around 14% and 8% lower, respectively, and were among the worst hit in the Nifty 500. 

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 35 rose and 15 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 21 rose and 9 fell

* On the NSE, 1,549 stocks rose, 1,256 fell, and 96 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 2,138 stocks rose, 1,812 fell, and 125 were unchanged

* Nifty Realty: up 2.9%; Nifty IT: up 2.6%; Nifty FMCG: down 0.5%

BSE                                                 NSE

76759.81 points, up 226.85 points or 0.3%           23249.50 points, up 86.40 points or 0.4%

End

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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