More Stories

Informist, Friday, Mar. 7, 2025

By Akshita Kumar

MUMBAI – The benchmark indices closed flat Friday after a choppy trading session. While a decline in select information technology and financial services stocks led the market to give up early gains, a rise in shares of select automobile companies and index heavyweight Reliance Industries limited the decline. The oversold nature of the market and the fall in crude oil prices and the dollar index drove buying momentum during the day, analysts said.

Friday, the Nifty 50 ended around 8 points higher at 22552.50 points, its highest level in a week. The BSE Sensex ended at 74332.58 points, down 7.51 points. Analysts attributed the choppy trade in the domestic market to the fall in US indices overnight and relative underformance of the domestic IT sector. The broader market indices failed to sustain their early gains and ended mixed. Nifty mid-cap indices ended down 0.2-0.4% and the small-cap indices ended up 0.1-0.7%.

Shares of index heavyweight Reliance Industries ended over 3% higher as the top performer in the Nifty 50. The company has the third-highest weightage of 8.2% in the 50-stock index. The stock extended its gains for the third straight session. Global brokerage Macquarie upgraded its rating on the stock to 'outperform' from 'neutral' and also increased its target price to INR 1,500 from INR 1,300, CNBC-TV18 reported. Brokerage Kotak Institutional Equities also upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy' from 'add' and set a price target of INR 1,400, the report said.

Shares of Bharat Electronics ended 1.5% higher. Brokerage JP Morgan maintained an 'overweight' rating on the stock with a target price of INR 343. The brokerage also sees a high probability of the company announcing orders worth INR 1.20 billion by Mar. 31, which would act as a near-term catalyst for the stock price, CNBC-TV18 reported. After market hours Thursday, the company said it had bagged orders worth INR 5.77 billion.

At 1655 IST, the Brent Crude May futures contract on the Intercontinental Exchange was at $70.70 per barrel. This week, Brent crude oil prices fell below $70 per barrel after hovering around $72-$83 per barrel for the last two months. Shares of oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp., and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. ended 1-2% lower, snapping a four-day winning streak. The stocks had risen sharply this week as the fall in crude oil prices boosted sentiment for the sector, with lower crude oil prices likely to boost marketing margins for retail fuel. Despite ending lower Friday, these three stocks were still up 10-13% this week.

Shares of food delivery companies Zomato and Swiggy ended 3.8% and 0.4% lower, respectively. Indian consumer products distributors filed an antitrust case against the fast-delivery businesses of Zomato, Swiggy, and Zepto, calling for an investigation into alleged deep discounting practices, media reports said.

Shares of some automobile companies such as Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors ended up over 1%. Shares of Bajaj Auto ended higher for the third straight session. Shares of a few defence companies such as Bharat Dynamics, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, and Cochin Shipyard ended up 4-7% and were the top perfomers in the Nifty 200 index. Shares of Data Patterns (India) ended up over 14%, extending gains for the third straight session. Shares of Triveni Turbine and Inox Wind ended up 14.5% and 11.5%, respectively, and were among the top gainers in the Nifty 500 index.

Shares of information technology companies such as index heavyweight Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra ended 1-2% lower. The US tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite had ended 2.6% lower Thursday. Nifty IT was among the worst-hit sectoral indices Friday and ended down 0.9%.

Shares of IndusInd Bank and NTPC ended down 3.6% and 2.5%, respectively. These stocks were the worst hit in the 50-stock index. Shares of Kalyan Jewellers India ended down 4.2%.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Media and Nifty Oil & Gas ended up 1.8% and 0.6%, respectively, and were the top performing sectoral indices. The rise in the Nifty Oil & Gas index was due to a rise in shares of Reliance Industries. Nifty Metal ended up 0.4%, extending its gains for the fifth straight session. 

On the other hand, Nifty Realty and Nifty Consumer Durables ended down over 1% each. The fall in the Nifty Consumer Durables snapped the index's four-day gaining streak.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 23 rose and 27 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 15 rose and 15 fell

* On the NSE, 1,818 stocks rose, 1,093 fell, and 77 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 2,512 stocks rose, 1,468 fell, and 134 were unchanged

* Nifty Media: up 1.8%; Nifty Oil & Gas: up 0.6%; Nifty Realty: down 1.2%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 74332.58, down 7.51 points                Nifty 50: 22552.50, up 7.80 points

End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.