Indian stock markets opened on a muted note as global signals become mixed on Thursday morning. At 09:16 IST, the Sensex rose 135.42 points or 0.26 percent to 53,162.39, and the Nifty rose 36.70 points or 0.23 percent to 15,835.80.
Top winners and losers
Among the Sensex-30 stocks, PowerGrid, Reliance, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and Infosys led gains. Adani Ports, Tata Motors and Britannia were the additional winners on the Nifty.
M&M, HDFC twins, Tech M, HUL, Nestle, ITC, Cipla, Tata Consumer, ONGC and Coal India, meanwhile, were the strongest performers in the two benchmarks.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were in positive territory, rising to 0.6 percent. Sectorally, Nifty metals, PSBs and oil and gas indices rose the most, while real estate, fmcg and autopockets were moderate.
As for the shares, Indus Towers gained 2.5 percent following the rumors of a likely big block deal in today’s trading of 1.89 crore shares.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) also rose 2 percent as the stock goes ex-date for bonus issuance.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Fed chief Powel renewed his aggressive statement yesterday that the central bank is determined to contain inflation and that “soft landing is possible, but extremely challenging”. It is interesting that US markets largely ignored this and ended up almost flat.This may be an early indication that the markets are bottoming out.The drop in FPI sales to Rs 851 crore yesterday from the June average of about Rs 2700 crore may Also interpreted as early signs of sales depletion, data will need to be looked at to see if this trend continues.”
“In the near term, market movement will be increasingly influenced by the FY23 Q1 results expected from the second week of July. The results of banks, IT and autos (particularly PVs and CVs) are likely to be good and those of metals, cement and some FMCGs may disappoint,” he added.
Global clues
Asian equities ended on Thursday in a gloomy mood from a difficult quarter, amid fears that the cure for inflation by central banks will sicken the global economy, although it is proving to be a boost for the safe-haven dollar and government bonds.
Shares of Tokyo opened lower on Thursday after US stocks ended flat, with investors looking for new trading clues. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index fell 0.19 percent, or 51.32 points, to 26,753.28 at opening, while the broader Topix index lost 0.34 percent, or 6.48 points, to 1,887.09.
The S&P 500 ended a seesaw slightly lower on Wednesday as investors stumbled toward the end of a bleak month, a bleak quarter and the worst first half for the Wall Street benchmark index since President Richard Nixon’s first term.
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