BAROMETERS TURN RANGEBOUND; EUROPEAN MARKET OPENS HIGHER

The domestic equity benchmarks continued to trade with modest gains in a narrow range in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 24,300 level. IT, pharma and healthcare stocks advanced while financial services, media and banking shares declined. Trading was volatile due to weekly F&O series expiry today.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 174.82 points or 0.22% to 80,161.62. The Nifty 50 index rose 48.60 points or 0.20% to 24,335.10.

The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 80,392.64 and 24,401, respectively in morning trade. Further, the Nifty Bank also hits record high at 53,357.70 in early trade.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.60% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.70%.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap and S&P BSE Small-Cap index hit an all-time high at 47,111.16 and 53,826.87, respectively.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,255 shares rose and 1,615 shares fell. A total of 104 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

HCL Technologies (up 2.99%), ICICI Bank (up 1.98%), Infosys (up 1.87%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.78%) and Dr Reddy`s Laboratories (up 1.49%) were major Nifty gainers.

HDFC Bank (down 2.13%), Bajaj Finance (down 1.53%), Wipro (down 1.18%), UltraTech Cement (down 1.03%) and Tech Mahindra (down 1.01%) were major Nifty losers.

Bajaj Finance fell 1.53%. The company�s new loans booked increased by 10% to 10.97 million in Q1 FY25 as compared to 9.94 million recorded in Q1 FY24.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vedanta added 1.66% after the diversified minerals company informed that its total aluminum production rose 3% to 5,96,000 tonnes in Q1 FY25, on account of better operational performance.

Persistent Systems rallied 3.13% after the company acquired a 100% stake in US-based software company Starfish Associates for $20.7 million.

GE T&D India jumped 4.10% after the company announced the receipt of an international order from Grid Solutions SAS, France, worth 64 million Euros (approximately Rs 576.43 crore).

Suryoday Small Finance Bank added 2.71% after the bank�s gross advances jumped 42% year-on-year at Rs 9,037 crore, deposits up 42% YoY at Rs 8,137 crore, CASA ratio stood at 17.7 in Q1 FY25 as compared with 20.1% in Q4 FY24 while GNPA was at 2.67% in Q1 FY25 as against 2.80% in Q4 FY25.

Global Markets:

European stocks opened higher on Thursday, with the U.K.`s general election in focus in the region.

Most Asian stocks traded higher on Thursday as Wall Street indexes, including the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Composite, hit record highs in holiday-shortened trading. Weak labor data, along with purchasing managers index readings, fueled investor bets on a 25 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September.

Meanwhile, minutes from the Fed meeting revealed concerns about a slowing economy and subsiding inflation, but officials desire additional data to justify rate cuts, leaving investors in wait-and-see mode.

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