Key bourses trade in fine fettle in late trade

04 Jan 2024 Evaluate

Key domestic indices continued to trade in fine fettle in last leg of trade with Sensex and Nifty were trading above their crucial 71,800 and 21,600 levels, respectively. Investors continued to gauge the trajectory for US Fed rate cuts after the December meeting minutes overnight showed officials seeing higher rates for some more time. Sentiments remained up-beat with Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal’s statement that Indian ambition and target is not for small changes, the economy will reach the $5 trillion target in a few years and will become the third largest GDP in the world by 2027. He said that this target can be achieved by 140 crore Indians working as a team as per the Panch Pran of Amrit Kaal enunciated by the Prime Minister. Some support also came with External Affairs Minister -- S Jaishankar’s statement that the year 2024 will continue to be turbulent for the world but India is well-positioned politically and economically to navigate the challenges, maintain its rising global role and its path of development. He said India is well-placed to look at 2024 with a fair deal of confidence.

Positive trade in European counters too aided sentiments. German stocks were seeing modest gains in cautious trade on Thursday as investors reacted to hawkish FOMC meeting minutes and awaited Eurozone PMI and German consumer inflation figures for direction. However, Asian markets were trading mostly in red after the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes offered little clarity on the timing of U.S. interest rate cuts.

Back home, Fitch Ratings in its latest report titled 'APAC Cross-Sector Outlook 2024' has said that the economic growth in Asia Pacific will remain strong in 2024 and GDP is expected to grow by about 5 per cent in India and a host of emerging market countries. It said the outlooks for the banking sectors in India and Indonesia, as well as APAC emerging markets as a whole, move to improving in 2024, partly reflecting the robust economic backdrop. Meanwhile, sugar industry stocks were in focus as the government notified exports of 8,606 tonnes of raw cane sugar under tariff-rate quota (TRQ) to the US for 2024. The directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) in a public notice said that this quantity has been notified under the TRQ scheme from October 1, 2023-September 30, 2024.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 71822.61, up by 466.01 points or 0.65% after trading in a range of 71546.60 and 71914.06. There were 20 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining, while 1 stock remained unchanged on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 1.31%, while Small cap index was up by 0.96%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 6.24%, Utilities up by 2.69%, Power up by 2.12%, PSU up by 1.20% and Telecom up by 1.15%, while Auto down by 0.13% was the only losing index on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Finance up by 4.47%, NTPC up by 3.79%, Indusind Bank up by 3.15%, Power Grid up by 2.34% and Axis Bank up by 1.98%. On the flip side, HCL Tech. down by 1.05%, Tata Steel down by 0.85%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.71%, TCS down by 0.64% and Maruti Suzuki down by 0.63% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar has said that the year 2024 will continue to be turbulent for the world but India is well-positioned politically and economically to navigate the challenges, maintain its rising global role and its path of development. He said India is well-placed to look at 2024 with a fair deal of confidence.

The minister said ‘today where we are positioned, where we are positioned politically, where we are positioned economically, when you look at a lot of these societal changes and the capabilities that have grown, I would say at the end of this conversation, I'm closer to saying we have strung the boat.’ Delving into India's engagement with China after Independence, he appeared to criticise Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's policy, saying ‘if the approach had been 'more Bharat, we would have had a less rosy view of our relationship with China’. He especially noted this for the first decade after Independence.

Referring to economic reforms, Jaishankare said, ‘we were not sufficiently sweeping in our reforms in the first two decades of reform. We kind of fell for the mantra of globalisation, where we actually didn't benefit as much relatively as those who dominated production and those who dominated finance did’.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 21644.75, up by 127.40 points or 0.59% after trading in a range of 21564.55 and 21674.30. There were 31 stocks advancing against 19 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Bajaj Finance up by 4.47%, NTPC up by 3.84%, Tata Consumer Products up by 3.23%, ONGC up by 3.19% and Indusind Bank up by 3.08%. On the flip side, BPCL down by 2.04%, LTIMindtree down by 1.70%, Hero MotoCorp down by 1.39%, Dr. Reddy's Lab down by 1.31% and HCL Tech. down by 1.13% were the top losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 29.87 points or 0.39% to 7,712.20, France’s CAC rose 27.93 points or 0.38% to 7,439.79 and Germany’s DAX gained 75.11 points or 0.45% to 16,613.50.

Asian markets were trading mostly in red; Nikkei 225 slipped 175.88 points or 0.53% to 33,288.29, Straits Times fell 26.08 points or 0.82% to 3,173.36, KOSPI dropped 20.29 points or 0.78% to 2,587.02, Shanghai Composite weakened 12.9 points or 0.44% to 2,954.35, Taiwan Weighted lost 9.66 points or 0.06% to 17,549.65 and Hang Seng declined 0.43 points to 16,645.98, while Jakarta Composite gained 76.42 points or 1.04% to 7,355.51.

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