NIFTY TRADES TAD BELOW 26,050; BROADER MRKT OUTPERFORMS

The key equity benchmarks continued to trade with modest losses in early-afternoon trade as investors stayed cautious ahead of upcoming corporate earnings announcements. The Nifty traded tad below the 26,050 mark. IT, pharma and auto shares declined, while consumer durables, metal and FMCG shares advanced.

At 1:30 ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 348.85 points or 0.41% to 85,059.85. The Nifty 50 index dropped 92.60 points or 0.35% to 26,049.50.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.07% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.01%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,841 shares rose and 2,228 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Titan Company (up 2.13%), Hindalco Industries (up 0.77%), Nestle India (up 0.78%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.69%) and NTPC (up 0.64%) were the major Nifty50 gainers.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.34%), Asian Paints (down 1.25%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.09%), Bajaj Finance (down 1.15%) and Tata Consultancy Services (down 1%) were the major Nifty50 losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vikran Engineering rose 3.78% after securing an order worth Rs 459.20 crore from NTPC Renewable Energy for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of a 400 MW AC solar power project at Chitrakoot-1 in Uttar Pradesh.

Strides Pharma Science slipped 2.07% after its step-down subsidiary, Strides Pharma Inc. USA (SPI), has received four observations from the USFDA following a routine inspection of its formulations facility in Chestnut Ridge, New York.

Apollo Micro Systems climbed 1.88% after the company received orders amounting to Rs 100.24 crore from a private company for the supply of Unmanned Aerial Systems.

NMDC advanced 1.90% after the company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Colorado School of Mines, USA to establish a framework for research collaboration in mining, mineral processing, metallurgy and AI/ML in mining.

Ola Electric Mobility jumped 2.71% after its subsidiary, Ola Electric Technology has secured incentives worth Rs 366.78 crore under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for automobile and auto components (PL I-Auto) for FY25.

Global Markets:

European markets remained closed on Friday on account of the Boxing Day holiday, while Asian markets traded mixed, with several regional exchanges also shut for the holiday.

Silver prices continued rising and hit another high after notching a record Wednesday. Spot silver rose more than 4% on Friday to reach an all-time high of $74.89 per ounce.

Silver has rallied over 159% year to date. Metal prices have soared this year amid shaky investor sentiment on riskier assets, as fears of an AI bubble and uncertainty over U.S. Fed rate cuts mount.

Meanwhile, core consumer prices in Tokyo rose 2.3% in December from a year earlier, according to government data Friday. The core CPI, which strips out volatile fresh food costs, remained above the Bank of Japan�s 2% target, reinforcing the case for more interest rate hikes.

The latest reading was below the 2.8% increase in November. Tokyo�s inflation numbers are widely considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide trends.

The Australia and Hong Kong markets were closed for the holiday.

U.S. equity futures ticked slightly higher in early Asian hours, after the S&P 500 closed at a new record for the second straight day on Wednesday stateside.

The broad market index advanced 0.32%, ending the session at 6,932.05. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 288.75 points, or 0.60%, and also posted a closing record of 48,731.16. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.22% and settled at 23,613.31.

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