Market Commentary - Mid-Session
Market at day's low; European mrkt decline As on : 17-Oct-24  13:32

The headline equity indices traded with major losses in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded below the 24,800 level. Barring the Nifty IT index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE were traded in red. Trading was volatile due to weekly F&O series expiry today.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 515.15 points or 0.63% to 80,988.64. The Nifty 50 index declined 211.70 points or 0.85% to 24,759.60.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.27% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.02%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,291 shares rose and 2,566 shares fell. A total of 134 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The Union Cabinet has approved an additional installment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners w.e.f. 1 July 2024 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rate of 50% of the basic pay/pension, to compensate against price rise. This increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission. The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs.9,448.35 crore per annum. This will benefit about 49.18 lakh central government employees and 64.89 lakh pensioners.

Gainers & Losers:

Infosys (up 2.85%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.28%), State Bank of India (up 1.51%), Larsen & Toubro (up 1.08%) and Power Grid Corporation of India (up 0.73%) were major Nifty gainers.

Bajaj Auto (down 11.51%), Shriram Finance (down 3.32%), Nestle India (down 3.26%), Hero MotoCorp (down 3.19%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 3%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Reliance Industries (RIL) added 0.19%. The company set Monday, 28 October 2024, as the record date for the proposed 1:1 bonus share issue.

Mphasis rallied 6.51% after the company's consolidated net profit grew 4.65% to Rs 423.33 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with Rs 404.50 crore in Q1 FY25. Revenue from operations rose 3.32% to Rs 3,536.14 crore in Q2 FY25 as against Rs 3,422.46 crore posted in Q1 FY25.

CRISIL advanced 2.66% after the company reported 12.9% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 171.55 crore in Q3 CY2024 from Rs 151.99 crore in Q3 CY2023. Consolidated total income was up 7.9% to Rs 833.2 crore in 03 2024, compared with Rs 771.8 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Pondy Oxides & Chemicals hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company's standalone net profit surged 112.85% to Rs 17.39 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with Rs 8.17 crore in Q2 FY24. Revenue jumped 45.73% to Rs 572.43 crore during the quarter as compared with Rs 392.80 crore posted in same quarter last year.

GMR Airports Infrastructure slipped 2.39%. The company's passenger traffic across all GMR Airports increased 9% year on year (YoY) to over 10.2 million passengers in September 2024.

Kolte-Patil Developers surged 9.26% after the company's sales value jumped 21.84% to Rs 770 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with Rs 632 crore in Q2 FY24.

Aditya Birla Money was locked in an upper circuit of 2% after the company reported 123.90% surge in net profit to Rs 26.69 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with Rs 11.92 crore posted in Q2 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 30.39% year on year (YoY) to Rs 125.66 crore in the quarter ended 30 September 2024.

Global Markets:

Most European shares advanced on Thursday as traders geared up for the upcoming monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank.

Asian stocks traded lower on Thursday, after China's housing ministry briefing failed to impress investors. Japan's exports fell 1.7% in September compared to the same period last year. September's import growth came in at 2.1% as acompared with 2.3% in August 2024.

China will expand its 'whitelist' of real estate projects and speed up bank lending for these unfinished developments to 4 trillion yuan ($561.8 billion) by the end of the year, the country's housing ministry said Thursday.

Asian markets received a positive boost from Wall Street's performance, where tech stocks and strong earnings contributed to gains on Wednesday. Investors are now focused on upcoming earnings reports and economic data. At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.79% to hit a new all time high, while the S&P 500 index added 0.47%, and the NASDAQ Composite index gained 0.28%.

On Thursday, investors will be watching U.S. retail sales and industrial production data for insights into the economy's health. As expectations for a slower pace of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve grow, these economic indicators will be closely monitored.

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