Despite continued caution due to the ongoing violence in the Middle East, the Indian stock indices, the S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50, saw stronger trading on Tuesday. Ahead of local quarterly reports and the Reserve Bank of India’s impending rate announcement, investors were mainly in a wait-and-watch mindset.
The Nifty50 increased 190 points, or 0.77%, to 24,986 at approximately 11:35 am, while the BSE Sensex was trading 558 points, or 0.69%, higher at 81,608 then.
The RBI’s remarks on Wednesday and the approaching corporate earnings season later this week, according to analysts, will be significant variables that will affect market movements shortly.
The Sensex stocks that witnessed early gains were M&M, SBI, HUL, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank, and Bharti Airtel; the stocks that saw early losses were Tata Steel, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, HCL Tech, and Power Grid.
Following an uptick in customer complaints, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led EV startup received a show-cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which caused Ola Electric’s shares to plummet more than 6% in early trading.
After Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) announcement of a 3% decrease in retail sales for Q2 FY25, with 1,03,108 units sold, compared to last year, Tata Motors shares also fell 3.7% in early trade.
“Market has turned weak responding to negative cues from escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, massive FPI selling and concerns surrounding the election results due today,” said Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
“An important data to note is that the net FPI selling of Rs 50011 crores during the last six trading sessions has been more than offset by the DII buying of Rs 53203 crores. Yet the market has corrected by 5.6% impacted by the weak sentiments. The best strategy now is to accumulate high-quality fairly valued blue chips like the leading financials and IT stocks,” Vijayakumar suggested.
Hardik Matalia, Derivative Analyst at Choice Broking, said, “After a flat opening, Nifty can find support at 24,650 followed by 24,500 and 24,400. On the higher side, 24,850 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,950 and 25,050.”
Mainland Tuesday saw the explosive return of Chinese stocks following a lengthy hiatus, hitting multi-year highs as investor enthusiasm over Beijing’s strong stimulus measures continued to show no signs of abating. The Shanghai Composite Index increased by about the same amount to reach its highest point since December 2021, while China’s CSI300 blue-chip index soared 10% in early trade to reach its highest level since July 2022.
By comparison, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong fell 3.9%, and the Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index fell more than 7%. As a result, the MSCI’s largest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside of Japan saw a decline of more than 1%.
S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were steady, but Tokyo’s Nikkei dropped more than 1% in other places.
