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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 17, 2025

By Gopika Balasubramanium

MUMBAI – The benchmark equity indices closed lower Thursday after moving in a tight range and consolidating for the fifth successive session. Most of the dips came in the final hour of the day's trade. Financial services stocks were the biggest drag on the Nifty 50, followed by information technology stocks. 

Thursday, the Nifty 50 closed at 25111.45 points, down 100.60 points, or 0.4%. The index has been moving between 25000 points and 25300 points for five sessions now. The BSE Sensex closed at 82259.24 points, down 375.24 points or 0.5%. Among the mid- and small-cap indices, the wider Nifty Smallcap 250 and Nifty Midcap 150 indices ended in positive territory, while the others were weak.

Earlier in the day, Citigroup downgraded Indian equities to "neutral" largely because of comparatively rich valuations, Bloomberg reported, citing a note from Citi. Citi noted that Indian equities had lost the initial haven status after they gained following US President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariff announcement early in April, and have been overtaken by other Asian markets. The slowdown in corporate earnings growth and elevated valuations are now putting off investors.

"India's macro (macroeconomic) story looks better than peers and a US trade deal remains possible," the report said, quoting Citi. "But the market's EPS (earnings per share) growth outlook no longer looks exceptional against the backdrop of still relatively high valuations."
 

However, Citi upgraded South Korean and Chinese equities to "overweight", citing expectations of improving earnings even as US tariff risks remain, the report said. "We overweight China and Korea, which benefit from comparatively better earnings per share revision trends, reasonable valuations, and structural themes," such as artificial intelligence and corporate governance reforms, as per the Bloomberg report.

Financial services and banking stocks were the biggest drag on the Nifty 50. IndusInd Bank, SBI Life Insurance Co., and Axis Bank ended 1-3% lower. Others such as HDFC Life Insurance Co., ICICI Bank, and Bajaj Finserv also declined significantly. The Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, and Nifty Financial Services sectoral indices closed 0.4-0.6% lower.

Large-cap information technology stocks Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and HCL Technologies closed 1-3% lower. All the stocks in the Nifty IT index closed in the red. The sectoral index closed at 37138.55 points, down 1.4%, and was the worst-hit. Tech Mahindra fell nearly 3% after the company's net profit and revenue for the quarter fell short of consensus estimates. Some brokerages said that though the company's margin is expanding, it is still away from guidance. Most of the brokerages maintained their respective ratings on the stock and said the valuations are at par with its large-cap peers.

Real estate companies fared better. Prestige Estates Projects, Sobha Ltd., and Godrej Properties ended 2-4% higher. The Nifty Realty closed at 1001.10 points, up 1.2%, and was the top gainer among the sectoral indices. The index was up for the fourth straight session.

Among stocks, PNC Infratech came off intraday highs and closed 2.5% higher. The stock had risen nearly 7% to hit a high of INR 331.80, the highest level since Jan. 2, after the company said it was one of the lowest bidders for a 1.2 gigawatt solar project. Godawari Power & Ispat ended 2.8% higher. Shares of the company rose over 6% to an intraday high of INR 197.61 after it said it had received approval from the environment ministry to set up an integrated steel plant in Chhattisgarh.

Shares of Sona BLW Precision Forgings closed 6.8% higher, paring some of its gains. The stock had surged nearly 9% to a one-month high of INR 494 after media reports said the company was in advanced talks to supply electric vehicle components to China-based BYD.

Smartworks Coworking Spaces closed 9.3% higher than its issue price. The stock had surged 15% to a high of INR 469.25 on its debut Thursday. More than 17.54 million shares were traded on the National Stock Exchange. The stock had listed at INR 435, a premium of nearly 6% to its issue price of INR 407.

* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 19 rose and 31 fell

* Of the Sensex stocks, 7 rose and 23 fell

* On the NSE, 1,432 stocks rose, 1,502 fell, and 89 were unchanged

* On the BSE, 2,007 stocks rose, 2,040 fell, and 152 were unchanged

* Nifty IT : down 1.4%; Nifty PSU Bank: down 0.8%; Nifty Realty: up 1.2%

BSE                                               NSE

Sensex: 82259.24, down 100.60 points or 0.4%      Nifty 50: 25111.45, down 375.24 points or 0.5%

End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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