Stock Market Updates: Sensex Jumps 500 Points, Nifty Above 24,650; FMCG, IT Lead Gains – News18
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Indian benchmark equity indices, BSE Sensex and Nifty 50, opened lower on Friday, following a negative close on Wall Street overnight.
Stock Market Updates
Sensex Today: Indian benchmark equity indices, BSE Sensex and Nifty 50, were trading higher on Friday after recovering from earlier losses.
By 1 PM, the BSE Sensex had gained 360.29 points, or 0.44%, reaching 81,650.25, while the Nifty 50 stood at 24,629.15, up 80.45 points, or 0.33%.
At the start of the trading session, 22 out of the 30 stocks on the BSE Sensex were in the red, with Tata Steel leading the declines, down by 2.15%. Other stocks under pressure included JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, IndusInd Bank, and UltraTech Cement. On the positive side, Nestle India saw a gain of 0.36%, followed by Hindustan Unilever, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid Corporation, and ICICI Bank.
On the Nifty 50, 29 out of the 50 stocks were in the negative, with JSW Steel down by 1.41%, followed by Tata Steel, Infosys, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Hindalco. BPCL was the top gainer, up 0.68%, followed by Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid Corporation, and SBI Life.
All sectoral indices were in the red, with the Metal index taking the hardest hit, falling 1.58%. The PSU Bank, Media, Pharma, and Healthcare indices also posted losses.
In the broader markets, the Nifty Smallcap 100 index was down by 0.70%, and the Nifty Midcap 100 index had slipped 0.55%.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, noted that the strengthening dollar could lead to imported inflation, which is a concern for the markets. He also pointed out renewed selling by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), who offloaded Indian equities worth Rs 4,572 crore over December 11 and 12. “With high valuations in India, FIIs are likely to sell more at every market rise. The dollar’s appreciation post-US elections has made selling profitable for FIIs,” he said.
In a positive development, India’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation eased to 5.48% in November, down from 6.21% in October, as reported by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Food and beverage inflation softened to 8.2% from 9.69%, mainly due to a cooling in vegetable prices, which dropped to 29.33% from 42.18%.
Global Cues:
Markets across the Asia-Pacific region were lower, with Chinese stocks leading the declines.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 1.39%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.94%, and the Shanghai Composite declined by 1.11%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.16%, while the broader Topix index was down by 1.12%.
South Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.1%, though the small-cap Kosdaq rose 0.8%. And, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.69%.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 234.44 points, or 0.53%, to 43,914.12, while the S&P 500 lost 32.94 points, or 0.54%, to 6,051.25. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 132.05 points, or 0.66%, to 19,902.84.
While mega-cap and growth stocks showed mixed results, Nvidia dropped by 1.4%, whereas Microsoft gained 0.1%.
European stocks also closed lower on Thursday after the European Central Bank cut interest rates by 25 basis points as anticipated, signaling potential further easing to support a sluggish economy amid rising political uncertainties. The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended the volatile session down by 0.1%, although eurozone bank stocks, which are sensitive to interest rates, rose 0.3%.
