Benchmark indices opened lukewarm Thursday morning as global signals remain subdued. At 09:16 IST, the Sensex rose 22.82 points or 0.04 percent to 51845.35, and the Nifty rose 13.20 points or 0.09 percent to 15426.50.
Fears of a recession in the US mounted after Fed Chairman Powell said the central bank would act even faster than before to tame inflation, which could come at the cost of an economic downturn.
Also at home, members of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy committee (MPC) pointed to more rate hikes in the coming months to tackle rising inflation, the minutes of June’s policy review published Wednesday showed.
Top winners and losers
Sensex-30 stocks included Airtel, Wipro, TCS, Maruti, ICICI Bank, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints, M&M and Dr. Reddy’s the biggest winners, up 2 percent. Hero Moto and Bajaj Auto were up 4 percent and 3 percent respectively on the Nifty.
Titan, PowerGrid, Reliance, Apollo Hospitals, ONGC, SBI Life, meanwhile, were the biggest laggards on the two benchmarks.
Wider Markets
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were in positive territory, up 0.4 percent. Sectorally, Nifty Auto and IT indices led gains, up 1 percent each. Nifty Bank also held gains, while Realty was muted and the oil and gas pocket in the red.
Shares of Glenmark Pharma fell about 4 percent after the US FDA issued Form 483 with 6 observations for the company’s Baddi unit.
Bajaj Auto rose 3 percent after the company said the board will meet Monday to discuss further its previously deferred share buyback plan.
Global clues
Asian equities faltered as commodity prices fell Thursday as mounting concerns about the risks of a global recession amid aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve kept broad investor sentiment fragile. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan reversed previous gains and remained largely flat in Asian trading. Shares in South Korea were lower, while Japan’s Nikkei was broadly unchanged.
Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors gauged inflation and recession risks after US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell pointed to the need for further rate hikes. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.22 percent or 58.77 points to 26,208.32 in early trading, while the broader Topix index added 0.41 percent or 7.62 points to 1,860.27.
Wall Street’s major indices ended small losses on Wednesday after choppy trading as energy stocks weighed in and investors consumed Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s comments about the central bank’s aim to curb inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47.12 points, or 0.15 percent, to 30,483.13, the S&P 500 lost 4.9 points, or 0.13%, to 3,759.89 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 16.22 points , or 0.15 percent, to 11,053.08.
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