INDICES PARE ALL GAINS; IT SHARES RALLY

The headline equity benchmarks erased all gains and traded with substantial losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 25,150 mark after hitting the day�s high of 25,485.05 in early-afternoon trade. Realty, FMCG and auto shares declined while PSU bank, IT and pharma shares advanced

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex declined 517.75 points or 0.63% to 81,980.42. The Nifty 50 index fell 148.85 points or 0.59% to 25,101.25.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.53% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.37%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,689 shares rose and 2,172 shares fell. A total of 134 shares were unchanged.

Economy :

The HSBC India Services PMI survey, compiled by S&P Global, indicates strong sector performance, but total new business, international sales, and output have all increased at the slowest rates since late 2023.

Despite solid job creation and strengthening business confidence, the Services Business Activity Index fell from 60.9 in August to 57.7 in September, still indicating growth above the neutral mark of 50.0.

The slowdown in output growth, the lowest since November 2023, was influenced by intense competition, cost pressures, and shifts in consumer preferences toward online services. While new business intakes expanded sharply, their growth rate dropped to a ten-month low, and international sales growth weakened significantly, reflecting broader trends in private sector output.

Gainers & Losers:

Infosys (up 1.64%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (up 1.25%), Wipro (up 1.02%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.94%) and HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 0.94%) were major Nifty gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.85%), Bajaj Finance (down 2.58%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 2.25%), Shriram Finance (down 2.23%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 2.18%), were major Nifty losers.

Bajaj Finance declined 2.58%. The company announced that its new loans booked increased by 13.6% to 9.69 million in Q2 FY25 as compared to 8.53 million recorded in Q2 FY24.

Stocks in Spotlight:

HDFC Bank slipped 1.09%. The company stated that the bank�s advances under management were Rs 26,33,500 crore as of 30 September 2024, a growth of around 8% over Rs 24,37,400 crore as of 30 September 2023.

Avenue Supermarts (DMart) dropped 3.45%. The company announced that the total number of DMart stores as of 30 September2024 stood at 377. The company has reported standalone revenue of Rs 14,050.32 crore in Quarter ended 30 September2024, recording a growth of 14.16% from Rs 12,307.72 crore posted in the same period a year ago.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services slipped 5.46% after the company�s overall disbursement for Q2 FY25 was Rs 13,160 crore, which is a YoY decline of 1% over previous year.

Angel One fell 2.31%. The company said that its client base jumped 61% to 27.49 million in September 2024 as compared with 17.07 million in September 2023.

Bank of Baroda rallied 3.08% after the global business of the bank aggregated to Rs 25,06,809 crore as of 30 September 2024, up by 10.23% from Rs 22,74,148 crore as on 30 September 2023.

Sundaram-Clayton added 1.50% after the firm announced that its board has approved the opening of qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue of equity shares with the floor price of Rs 2,320.78 per share.

Global Markets:

Most European stocks traded higher as investors looking ahead for latest US job report.

Asian stocks traded higher on Friday, following losses on Wall Street, with concerns over Middle East tensions keeping investors on edge in the run up to September�s U.S. payrolls report.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned that the U.S. was considering strikes on Iranian oil facilities in response to Tehran`s missile attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Israel continued its military campaign against the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, with new air strikes targeting Beirut.

Investors were also closely watching the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which could provide further insights into the Federal Reserve`s interest rate policy.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday, though they recovered from intraday losses. Traders remained cautious amid the ongoing Middle East conflict and the anticipation of the jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.44%, the S&P 500 fell by 0.17%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 0.04%.

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