More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Apr. 22, 2025

By Akash Mandal

MUMBAI – Benchmark indices ended a tad higher Tuesday, extending their winning run for the sixth straight session despite investors taking profits at higher levels. The Nifty 50 surpassed 24200 points during the session but faced selling pressure and could not sustain it at the close. 

Headline indices ended higher despite the sharp fall in the US market overnight. "I expect the Indian market to outperform other global markets by a wide margin... due to cheap interest rates, high US bond yields, and a falling dollar, money will flow into EMs (emerging markets), and India will be the top gainer," Vinit Bolinjkar, head of research at Ventura Securities, said. 

Global uncertainty has hurt sentiment, with investors shifting to safer asset classes such as bonds and gold. Gold hit another record high Monday and surpassed INR 100,000 for 10 grams for the first time. At 1531 IST, the April contract of gold futures on the COMEX was up 1.6% at $3,461 per ounce.

"... (The rise was) fuelled by intensified safe-haven buying amid growing uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve's independence. The rally gained further momentum as the US Dollar Index slipped to a three-year low of 97.9," Kaynat Chainwala, assistant vice president of commodity research at Kotak Securities, said in a note. Bolinjkar, however, believes the rally in gold will eventually peter out and investors will return to equities.

The Nifty 50 closed at 24167.25 points, up 41.70 points or 0.2%, and the BSE Sensex ended at 79595.59 points, up 187.09 points or 0.2%. Broader market indices outperformed the benchmarks, with small- and mid-cap indices closing around 1% higher each.

Barring Nifty IT, Nifty Infrastructure, and Nifty Oil & Gas, other sectoral indices ended higher. Bank stocks extended gains after the Reserve Bank of India Monday said banks will have to assign an additional 2.5% run-off factor for retail deposits enabled with internet and mobile banking facilities, which is lower than the 5% rate initially suggested in the draft guidelines published in July last year. The new norms will be applicable from Apr. 1, 2026, a year later than the original deadline of Apr. 1, 2025.

These new measures will improve the liquidity coverage ratio of banks by 6% on an aggregate level, according to an impact analysis by the RBI. Considering that high-quality liquid assets make up 31%, or around INR 50 trillion, of the overall credit of banks, a 6% benefit on these assets would free up around INR 3 trillion for banks, Prabhudas Lilladher said in a report. Buoyed by the new norms, the Nifty Bank ended at a record high of 55647.20 points, up 0.6%. Large private banks such as HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank ended 0.5-1.8% higher. These banks are seen as the biggest beneficiaries of the new regulation.

IndusInd Bank fell 5% and was the worst hit in the Nifty 50 after media reports said the bank's board had appointed EY to carry out a second forensic audit. The fresh audit will focus on a discrepancy of INR 6 billion linked to accrued interest income from the bank's microfinance portfolio.

Stocks in domestic-facing sectors such as fast-moving consumer goods, consumer durables, and real estate also ended higher. FMCG stocks such as ITC, Hindustan Unilever, and Tata Consumer Products gained 1-3% to end among the top gainers in the Nifty 50.

Steel stocks such as Tata Steel, JSW Steel, and Jindal Stainless, which gained after the government imposed a provisional 12% safeguard duty on some steel products imported into the country for 200 days, ended off highs. The safeguard duty will help support product prices in India, which have been affected by cheap steel imports from China, analysts said. "... safeguard duty will help curb cheap steel imports, which has increased to 9-year high of 9.5 million tons in FY25, with 70% of these imports coming from China, South Korea, and Japan," ICICI Securities said in a report.

Solar equipment manufacturers such as Waaree Energies and Premier Energies ended 7% and 2% higher, respectively, as they might get to increase exports to the US after Washington imposed heavy duties on imports of solar equipment from four Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. These duties were as high as 3,521% on imports from Cambodia, CNBC-TV18 reported.

Among other stocks, Alok Industries soared over 18% and was the top gainer in the Nifty 500 after the company's net loss narrowed in the March quarter, reversing a trend of widening losses in the previous two quarters. The company's net loss shrunk to INR 677.50 million from INR 2.07 billion reported a year ago and INR 2.43 billion in Oct-Dec. Anant Raj closed over 2% higher after the company's net profit for the March quarter jumped 51.5% on year to INR 1.19 billion. Its consolidated revenue also rose 22.2% to INR 5.41 billion.

Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto ended lower following downgrades by Jefferies. The global brokerage double-downgraded Hero MotoCorp to "underperform" from "buy" and slashed its target price for the stock by 37% to INR 3,200. It also downgraded Bajaj Auto to "hold" from "buy" with a 28% cut in its target price to INR 7,500.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 22 rose and 28 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 14 rose and 15 fell, and 1 was unchanged

* On the NSE, 1,834 stocks rose, 1,059 fell, and 93 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 1,806 stocks rose, 1,144 fell, and 133 were unchanged

* Nifty Realty: up 2.4%; Nifty FMCG: up 1.9%; Nifty IT: down 0.6%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 79595.59, up 187.09 points or 0.2%        Nifty 50: 24167.25, up 41.70 points or 0.2%

End

US$1 = INR 85.36

Edited by Saji George Titus

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.