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Informist, Wednesday, Apr. 2, 2025

By Gopika Balasubramanium

MUMBAI – Benchmark indices closed higher Wednesday and partially reovered from the sharp fall on Tuesday after a strong growth in goods and services collections, and hopes that US President Donald Trump will be lenient on India. Indian equities were higher, defying the trend seen in the global market, where most of the indices in Asia and Europe fell ahead of the final decision on reciprocal tariffs by Trump.

Indices gained amid hope that tariffs on India are unlikely to be severe since India is not among the leading trade partners of the US. The Nifty 50 closed at 23332.35 points, up 0.7%, and the BSE Sensex closed at 76617.44 points, up 0.8%. Major gains in the day came from the rise of financial services, consumer-focused companies, and information technology stocks, which offset the fall in capital goods stocks. 

Broader market indices saw sentiment improving and ended sharply higher, outperforming the benchmark indices. The Nifty Midcap 50 gained the most and closed 1.7% higher.

The market has already factored in a conservative approach on tariffs by the US, some market analysts said. They argued that investors know that the tariffs are inevitable, but its quantum can also be negotiated. Some analysts attributed the Wednesday's rise to the strong goods and services tax collections for March. India's GST collections grew 9.9% on year to INR 1.961 trillion in March, which was the highest in 11 months, and the second highest for a month since the introduction of the tax in 2017. 

On the Nifty 50 index, Tata Consumer Products was the top gainer, bucking the trend seen among other consumer-facing stocks. Shares of the company rose after global brokerage Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral', and raised its target price to INR 1,200 from INR 1,040. Nestle India fell sharply Wednesday, but came off lows to close only 1% lower. Shares of the company fell after BofA Securities downgraded the stock to 'underperform' from 'neutral' with a target price of INR 2,140 citing elevated valuations compared with peers. 

Among other stocks in the 50-stock index, Bharat Electronics closed 3.3% lower, as it shed some of the sharp losses it made in the day. The company's provisional turnover for 2024-25 (Apr-Mar) was INR 230 billion, 16% higher than the INR 198.20 billion registered a year ago, the company had said Tuesday. UltraTech Cement and Power Grid Corp. also closed down 1% and 0.8%, respectively. 

All the sectoral indices closed higher Wednesday with the Nifty Realty index gaining the most and closing 3.6% higher. The index bounced back from Tuesday's sharp decline. These stocks had fallen following the Maharashtra government's upward revision of ready reckoner rates by an average of 4.39% across the state for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar). Ready reckoner rates are set by government to calculate stamp duty and registration charges. 

The number of housing units registered in Mumbai during March rose to 15,501 units, up 10% on year. The overall value of units registered in March surged to INR 265 billion, up 42% on year, with average ticket size rising to INR 17.1 million, up 29% on year. Buyers advanced their purchases due to the impending increase in the ready reckoner rates from April, Nuvama Institutioanal Equities, said in a research report.

All the 10 stocks in the Nifty Realty index closed sharply higher. Macrotech Developers, Godrej Properties, and Prestige Estates Projects were the top gainers, closing 3.5-5.3% higher. 

Among other indices, the Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty FMCG were the top gainers. The Nifty Consumer Durables was lifted by sharp gains seen in shares of Kalyan Jewellers, which closed 11.6% higher, and also that of Dixon Technologies and Titan Company which closed up 4.1% and 3.7%, respectively. 

Among individual stocks, Bharat Dynamics closed nearly 4% higher after said it achieved a turnover of over INR 33 billion in FY25, up 40% on year from INR 23.69 billion. Valor Estate was the top Nifty 500 constituent and closed 11.8% higher.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 30 rose and 20 fell 

* Of the Sensex stocks, 18 rose and 12 fell

* On the NSE, 2,148 stocks rose, 757 fell, and 72 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 2,863 stocks rose, 1,091 fell, and 131 were unchanged

* Nifty Realty: up 3.6%; Nifty Consumer Durables: up 2.5%; Nifty Oil & Gas: up 0.3%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 76617.44, up 592.93 points or 0.8%        Nifty 50: 23332.35, up 166.65 points or 0.7%

End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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