SENSEX UP 142 PTS; VIX SLIDES 5.50%; EUROPEAN MKT DECLINE

The headline equity benchmarks continued to trade with minor gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 23,450 mark after hitting the day�s low of 23,334.25 in early trade. Auto, consumer durable and oil & gas shares advanced while IT and media stocks declined.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 141.78 points or 0.19% to 76,952.48. The Nifty 50 index rose 56.80 points or 0.24% to 23,455.70.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rallied 1.04% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.11%.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap and S&P BSE Small-Cap index hit an all-time high at 46,001.37 and 51,259.06 respectively.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,327 shares rose and 1,479 shares fell. A total of 124 shares were unchanged.

The NSE`s India VIX, a gauge of the market`s expectation of volatility over the near term, slipped 5.50% to 12.75.

Economy:

India�s annual rate of inflation based on all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number is 2.61% for the month of May 2024 (over May 2023), the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Friday. Positive rate of inflation in May 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum & natural gas, mineral oils, other manufacturing etc. The month over month change in WPI index for the month of May 2024 stood at 0.20% as compared to April 2024

Gainers & Losers:

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.52%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 2.47%), Eicher Motors (up 1.70%), Shriram Finance (up 1.53%) and Bajaj Auto (up 1.42%) were major Nifty gainers.

Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.04%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.92%), Wipro (down 0.84%) HCL Technologies (down 0.64%), and Dr Reddy`s laboratories (down 0.55%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Ambuja Cements added 1.84% after the company said it will acquire 100% stake in Penna Cement Industries (PCIL) for an enterprise value of Rs 10,422 crore.

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) jumped 4.52 after the company informed that it has increased its stake in Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories (DRL) from 4.95% to 5.01%.

Vodafone Idea (VIL) advanced 2.30% after the company announced that its board has approved preferential allotment of around 166 crore fully paid up equity shares in one or more tranches for an aggregating consideration of upto Rs 2,458 crore on preferential basis.

Global Markets:

Markets in Europe declined across the board while Asian stocks traded mixed on Friday.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at between 0% and 0.1% but indicated it�s considering the reduction of its purchase of Japanese government bonds after the next monetary policy meeting scheduled for 30 and 31 July 2024.

U.S. stocks continued their historic rally on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at new highs for the fourth consecutive day. Tech stocks led the charge, pushing the Nasdaq Composite up 0.34%.

In a sign that the Federal Reserve might lower interest rates soon, new data showed a rise in unemployment claims last week and an unexpected drop in producer prices for May.

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