| The key equity indices traded with major gains in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty marched above the 22,650 mark. Oil & gas shares witnessed buying demand for the second consecutive trading session.
At 14:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 522.42 points or 0.71% to 74,774.26. The Nifty 50 index added 159 points or 0.71% to 22,672.70.
The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 74,869.3 and 22,697.30, respectively in afternoon trade. Further, the Nifty Bank index also registered a fresh record high today at 48,716.95.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.35% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.03%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,868 shares rose and 1,977 shares fell. A total of 155 shares were unchanged.
Economy:
India’s foreign exchange reserves increased from $2.951 billion to $645.583 billion for the week ended March 29, according to the latest RBI report. This is the sixth consecutive week of a jump in overall reserves.
For the week ended March 29, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased $2.354 billion to $570.618 billion.
Gold reserves increased $673 million to $52.16 billion during the week, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down $73 million to $18.145 billion.
India’s reserve position with the IMF was also down $2 million to $4.66 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Oil & Gas index rose 1.39% to 11,663.50. The index advanced 1.46% in two trading sessions.
GAIL (India) (up 4.33%), Indraprastha Gas (up 2.98%), Mahanagar Gas (up 2.39%), Reliance Industries (up 1.98%), Gujarat Gas (up 1.95%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.31%), Gujarat State Petronet (up 1.07%), Petronet LNG (up 0.94%), Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (up 0.63%) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 0.24%) advanced.
On the other hand, Adani Total Gas (down 0.68%), Oil India (down 0.56%) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 0.4%) edged lower.
Numbers to Track:
The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper rose 0.56% to 7.157 as compared with previous close 7.117.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee is edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 83.2950, compared with its close of 83.3175 during the previous trading session.
MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2024 settlement rose 0.36% to Rs 70,893.
The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was added 0.11% to 104.41.
The United States 10-year bond yield rose 1.81% to 4.456.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2024 settlement lost 81 cents or 0.81% to $ 90.37 a barrel.
Stocks in Spotlight:
FSN E-Commerce Ventures (Nykaa) rallied 5.49% after the company witnessed growth accelerate in Q4 FY24 with strong GMV growth of early thirties at a consolidated level, on a YoY basis.
Grasim Industries added 1.77% after the company informed that its B2B e-commerce business unit for building materials Birla Pivot has crossed Rs 1,000 crore revenue-mark in FY24, which is the first year of its operations.
Jindal Stainless shed 0.04%. The company said that the credit rating agency CARE Ratings has reaffirmed the company’s long-term rating at 'CARE AA” with 'stable’ outlook. |