After the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the interest rate unchanged, Indian benchmark indices traded marginally higher in a volatile market on Friday, led by Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank.
The BSE Sensex was trading 144 points or 0.20% higher at 71,582. Nifty50 was trading at 21,764, up 46 points or 0.21% at around 9.28 am.
Blue-chip Nifty 50 and Sensex indexes dropped 1% each on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept its inflation forecast for fiscal 2025 above its target of 4%.
The RBI, while keeping rates unchanged for the sixth consecutive meeting, as expected, reiterated it will not bring down rates until the consumer price inflation falls below its target, signalling that interest rate cuts may not be imminent.
From the Sensex stocks, Reliance Industries, Power Grid, SBI, HCL Tech, and Tech Mahindra opened higher, while, M&M, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, HDFC Bank, and ITC opened in the red.
LIC shares opened 6.2% higher after the firm reported a nearly 50% rise in third-quarter profit, on higher shareholders’ fund transfer.
Zomato shares also gained 5% in early trade after the firm’s net profit jumped nearly 4x (283%) quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 138 crore. Revenue from operations in the third quarter increased 69% year-on-year to Rs 3,288 crore.
Sector-wise, Nifty Bank, Financial Services, IT, Pharma, Healthcare and Consumer Goods opened higher, while Nifty Media, Metal, Realty, and Oil & Gas opened lower.
Experts View
“When valuations are high the bears will use any negative news to push the market down. The slightly negative news, from the market perspective, came yesterday in the slightly hawkish comments of the RBI Governor. The good news that the economy is doing better-than-expected and a GDP growth projection of 7% and CPI inflation of 4.5% for FY 25 was ignored,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
“FII selling and bear onslaught are unlikely to take the market down significantly. There will be strong buying on dips. The sustained flows into mutual funds which are gathering momentum will enable the DIIs to buy aggressively. A good investment strategy now would be to buy the bluechips which FIIs are selling,” Vijayakumar suggested.
Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, “Nifty could now face resistance at 22053 while 21448 could offer support in the near term.”
Global Markets
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat and heading toward a 0.7% weekly rise to notch its longest weekly winning streak since June. The S&P 500 touched the 5,000 mark and notched a record close on Thursday.
The Hang Seng slumped 2% in the morning, with traders frustrated by a long and so far fruitless wait for Beijing to unleash stimulus or support for China’s sliding markets.
The Nikkei rose 1%, aided by a retreating yen that traded near its weakest in two months at 149.37 per dollar in the Asia morning.
FII/DII Tracker
Foreign institutional investors sold Indian shares worth Rs 4,934 crore on a net basis on Thursday. Domestic institutional investors purchased Rs 5,512 crore of shares.
