Benchmarks trade with moderate gains; European mkt advances

The key equity indices traded with decent gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty scaled above the 22,350 mark. Pharma, FMCG and IT shares advanced while media and banking stocks declined.

At 13:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 323.42 points or 0.44% to 73,826.06. The Nifty 50 index rose 58.80 points or 0.26% to 22,391.45.

The broader market underperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.21% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 2.23%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 584 shares rose and 3,249 shares fell. A total of 90 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

Passenger vehicle wholesales in India rose 11% year-on-year in February, as sports utility vehicles continued to steer demand in the market, industry body SIAM said on Tuesday. The total passenger vehicle dispatches to dealers last month stood at 3,70,786 units, as compared to 3,34,790 units in the year-ago period.

"Passenger vehicles again reported its highest-ever sales of February posting sales of 3.7 lakh units with a growth of 10.8% as compared to February 2023," SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said in a statement.

Gainers & Losers:

HDFC Bank (up 2.77%), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (up 1.99%), LTIMindtree (up 1.63%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.32%) and Infosys (up 1.23%) were major Nifty gainers.

Cipla (down 2.47%), ITC (down 1.92%), State Bank of India (SBI) (down 1.77%) Grasim Industries (down 1.74%) and Adani Enterprises (down 1.54%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Mahindra & Mahindra said that its total production jumped 26.07% to 73,380 units in the month of February 2024 as compared with 58,203 units produced in the same period last year.

Aditya Birla Capital gained 2.76% after the company`s board and the board of its wholly owned subsidiary Aditya Birla Finance (ABFL) approved the scheme of amalgamation for merging ABFL with the company.

Manappuram Finance rose 1.15% after the announced that its board will meet on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 to consider and approve the borrowing program and business plan for FY 2024-25.

Rail Vikas Nigam shed 1.47%. The company has secured signalling and telecommunication work for Nagpur Division`s Khapri Sewagram section and a construction order from Maharashtra Metro Rail Corp.

H.G. Infra Engineering declined 1.83%. The company said that it has received the letter of award from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for an Andhra Pradesh-based project worth Rs 862.11 crore.

Jupiter Wagons slipped 5.83%. The company won an Rs 957 crore order from the Ministry of Railways for manufacturing wagons.

Tata Power Company declined 3.38%. The company said that Tata Power Solar Systems has successfully commissioned the country�s largest solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) project at Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.

Tata Power Solar Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Power Renewable Energy, which is a subsidiary of the Tata Power Company.

IRB Infrastructure Developers declined 4.54%. The company stated that its project SPV, IRB Lalitpur Tollway has achieved financial closure for a project in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh by tying up project finance of Rs 3,500 crore from the lender.

Global Markets:

European markets were advanced while Asian stocks traded mixed on Tuesday. Investor sentiment remained cautious as they awaited the release of the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data later on Tuesday. This data is expected to be a key factor in the Federal Reserve`s plans for potential interest rate adjustments in 2024.

Unlike other Asian markets, Japanese stocks continued their downward trend. This decline reflects growing speculation that the Bank of Japan might raise interest rates sooner than anticipated.

The U.S. market witnessed a pullback on Monday, snapping a streak of record highs for major indices. Information technology stocks faced selling pressure, raising questions about whether stocks tied to artificial intelligence can sustain their momentum after significant rallies.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News