Stock Market Today: Nifty and Sensex look to open modestly flat on Wednesday
- India’s Nifty and Sensex set for a subdued open after closing in the green for the sixth straight day on Tuesday.
- Nifty refreshed an all-time high above 22,200, Sensex settled above 73,000.
- Nifty and Sensex await the Fed and RBI Minutes for fresh trading impulse.
The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, are bracing for a subdued start to Wednesday, having rebounded on Tuesday.
Small losses in the Gift Nifty index and mixed Chinese stocks indicate a flattish to lower open for the Indian indices. Nifty and Sensex extended the bullish momentum on Tuesday, in the run-up to te release of the Minutes of the US Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policy meetings.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 ended 0.34% higher on the day at 22,196.95 while the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 finished at 73,057.40, up 0.48%.
The US stock markets settled lower on Tuesday, as traders returned from the Presidents’ Day holiday on Monday.
Stock market news
- India’s Nifty and Sensex regained upside traction, helped by a rally in private bank stocks and utility sector stocks while ignoring a sell-off in the auto and technology stocks.
- Power Grid Corp, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and NTPC were among the major gainers on the Nifty on Tuesday while losers included Coal India, HeroMoto Corp, Bajaj Auto, TCS and Eicher Motors.
- Among the corporate news, Coal India shares fell 5% after fall in e-auction premium.
- Shares of Whirlpool of India declined after the report of promoter off-loading 24% stake.
- Vibhor Steel Tubes debuted on bourses on February 20.
- On Monday, Bajaj Auto announced February 29 as the record date for a proposed buyback plan amounting to Rs 4,000 crore, at Rs 10,000 per share.
- Shares of Paisalo Digital rallied 15% to hit a record high of Rs 164 on Monday, surging 63% in the past month on promoter buying and strong December quarter (Q3FY24) earnings.
- Novartis India share price surges nearly 11% to hit a 52-week high as Novartis AG announces sale plans for the company.
- People’s Bank of China (PBoC) cut the five-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) by a record 25 bps from 4.20% to 3.95%. The PBOC rate cut failed to excite Asian traders.
- India’s trade data for January showed Thursday a shrinking Trade Deficit of $17.49 billion.
- US Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) data came in hotter-than-expected and helped push back the market’s expectations of a Fed rate cut from March to June. Markets are currently pricing a 77% chance of a cut in June, the CME Group’s Fed Watch Tool shows.
- Attention now turns toward the Minutes of the Fed January meeting and American tech major Nvidia Earnings report due on Wednesday, as the Indian economic calendar remains devoid of any top-tier data release until Thursday’s RBI Minutes.
Sensex FAQs
The Sensex is a name for one of India’s most closely monitored stock indexes. The term was coined in the 1980s by analyst Deepak Mohoni by mashing the words sensitive and index together. The index plots a weighted average of the share price of 30 of the most established stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Each corporation’s weighting is based on its “free-float capitalization”, or the value of all its shares readily available for trading.
Given it is a composite, the value of the Sensex is first and foremost dependent on the performance of its constituent companies as revealed in their quarterly and annual results. Government policies are another factor. In 2016 the government decided to phase out high value currency notes, for example, and certain companies saw their share price fall as a result. When the government decided to cut corporation tax in 2019, meanwhile, the Sensex gained a boost. Other factors include the level of interest rates set by the Reserve Bank of India, since that dictates the cost of borrowing, climate change, pandemics and natural disasters
The Sensex started life on April 1 1979 at a base level of 100. It reached its highest recorded level so far, at 73,328, on Monday, January 15, 2024 (this is being written in Feb 2024). The Index closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time on February 7, 2006. On March 13, 2014 the Sensex closed higher than Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index to become the major Asian stock index with the highest value. The index’s biggest gain in a single day occurred on April 7, 2020, when it rose 2,476 points; its deepest single-day loss occurred on January 21, 2008, when it plunged 1,408 points due the US subprime crisis.
Major companies within the Sensex include Reliance Industries Ltd, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Infosys, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra.