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Indian equity benchmark indices opened Thursday’s trading session on a cautious note, influenced by mixed signals from Asian markets.
Stock Market Updates
Sensex Today: Tracking fall in global peers, key Indian benchmark indices traded lower on Thursday, weighed down by IT stocks amid concerns over US President-elect Donald Trump’s policies and renewed uncertainty regarding the US rate cut trajectory.
The BSE Sensex slipped nearly 1,168-points and hovered near 79,065.64 levels in intra-day deals. The NSE Nifty was down around 362 points at 23,912.10 level as information technology (IT) stocks dragged.
L&T Technology Services, Infosys were among the top IT losers that slipped over 3% each. Tech Mahindra, LTI Mindtree, MphasiS, TCS and Wipro were the other prominent losers in the IT pack.
Among the Sensex 30 stocks, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, NTPC and HDFC Bank were the notable gainers. On the other hand, Infosys, SBI and Mahindra & Mahindra were maginally in red.
“The consolidation phase in the market is likely to continue in the near-term. A clear positive for the market is the cessation of relentless selling by the FIIs. This will give confidence to the retail investors to again start buying aggressively. But there is no room for such high optimism. Strong dollar is a negative for emerging markets and, therefore, FIIs are unlikely to turn aggressive buyers. Also large institutions would prefer to wait and watch for clarity on Trump’s policies and its likely impact on trade and the global economy.”, said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said in a note.
In the broader market, the BSE SmallCap index was seen outperforming with a 0.6% gain – Honasa Consumer, HUDCO, NBCC (India) and KEC International were the top movers on Thursday. The BSE MidCap index, meanwhile, was up 0.2 per cent.
Sectorally, the Nifty Media and Realty indices rallied over 1 per cent each followed by notable gains in PSU Bank, FMCG and Metal indices. Whereas, the Nifty IT index, declined 1 per cent.
Global Markets
Asian markets displayed a mixed trend this morning. Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.5 per cent. Straits Times and Kospi also held marginal gains, while Hang Seng and Taiwan were marginally in the red.
Overnight in the US, the benchmark indices ended with losses up to 0.6 per cent. Dow Jones too reversed early gains to settle in red. Trading action was muted owing to the upcoming Thanksgiving trading holiday tonight followed by a half-day trading session on Friday.
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs expects gold prices to reach $3,150 per ounce (in their bullish case scenario) by December 2025, an upside of around 19 per cent from the current levels as they remain a good hedge against sticky inflation and rising geopolitical issues.
