Indices trade with moderate gains; European stocks advance

The key equity benchmarks traded with decent gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,750 mark. Realty, media and PSU Bank stocks advanced while FMCG, pharma and private bank shares declined. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 13:30 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 499.92 points or 0.67% to 74,882.16. The Nifty 50 index added 151 points or 0.67% to 22,766.70.

The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index jumped 2.30% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 2.92%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,901 shares rose and 896 shares fell. A total of 109 shares were unchanged.

The NSE`s India VIX, a gauge of the market`s expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 8.258% to 17.32.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will establish the new government on Saturday, when Narendra Modi will be inaugurated as Prime Minister for a historic third consecutive term. The BJP has obtained written support from the leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United) (JD-U).

Gainers & Losers:

HCL Technologies (up 3.72%), Shriram Finance (up 3.70%), Tech Mahindra (up 3.65%), State Bank of India (SBI) (up 3.20%) and Infosys (up 2.33%) were major Nifty gainers.

Hindalco Industries (down 2.77%), Hindustan Unilever (down 2.33%), Mahindra And Mahindra (down 2.18%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.84%) and Cipla (down 1.76%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) advanced 3.31% after the company informed that it has achieved 10,633 million units (MU) overall volume in May 2024, registering a growth of 28.9% YoY basis.

Rail Vikas Nigam jumped 5.15% after the company said that it has received letter of acceptance (LoA) from Eastern Railway for a project worth Rs 390.97 crore.

Century Textiles & Industries soared 12.04% after the company�s wholly owned subsidiary, Birla Estates has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Barmalt India for a luxury residential group housing development in Gurugram, Delhi.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) surged 9.89% after it received orders from Adani Power and its subsidiary, Mirzapur Thermal Energy aggregating to over Rs 7,000 crore.

Aurionpro Solutions added 1.63% after the company said that its subsidiary Integro Technologies has entered into a partnership agreement with Yoma Bank in Myanmar for revolutionizing their SME lending operations.

Global Markets:

European and Asian stocks advanced on Thursday, buoyed by growing optimism for lower interest rates globally. The positive sentiment mirrored record highs on Wall Street`s S&P 500 and NASDAQ, fueled in part by weak US labor data. This data rekindled expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut by September.

The US Labor Department said job openings fell to 8.059 million in April, the lowest since 2021, from a downwardly revised 8.355 million in March.

Further fueling the rally were Wednesday`s interest rate reduction by the Bank of Canada and anticipation of a similar move by the European Central Bank later that day. This confluence of events fueled hopes for a global decrease in borrowing costs.

Chip-related stocks climbed after market leader NVIDIA surged to a $3 trillion valuation on Wednesday, riding the wave of artificial intelligence (AI) enthusiasm. Positive comments from ASML Holding NV, the world`s top manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, further bolstered investor confidence in the chipmaking sector. The market anticipates that rising AI demand will translate into a global surge for semiconductors.

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