Nifty ends higher ahead of US Fed outcome

20 Mar 2024 Evaluate

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Wednesday’s trading session in positive terrain with minor gains ahead of the US Fed's interest-rate decision later in the day and the Bank of England policy meeting tomorrow. Index made a positive start, amid foreign fund inflows. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,421.48 crore on March 19, provisional data from the NSE showed. But, index erased all of its initial gains and traded in red terrain, as traders were cautious with the Reserve Bank of India’s data in the March 2024 bulletin showing that the net foreign direct investment (FDI) in India, inflows minus outflows, declined 38.4 per cent year-on-year to $15.41 billion in the first 10 months of this financial year due to an increase in the repatriation of capital.

However, in afternoon session, index made a recovery and remained higher till the end, as traders took some support with private report stating that the shares of income and wealth of India’s top 1% at 22.6% and 40.1% respectively is at their ‘highest historical levels’ in 2022-23, beating even developed economies such as the US. Meanwhile, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has said that the provisional figures of net direct tax collections registered a growth of 19.88 per cent to Rs 18,90,259 crore for the financial year 2023-24 (as of March 17, 2024) as compared to Rs 15,76,776 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year (FY 2022–23), on higher advance tax mop-up. In last leg of trade, index ended just above its neutral line with gains of 21.65 points.

Traders were seen piling up positions in Oil & gas, Realty and FMCG stocks, while selling was witnessed in Metal, Financial Services and Pharma. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Eicher Motors, Indus Towers and Cummins India. On the other hand, the top losers Tata Chemicals, Page Industries and Astral. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 21900 - 22100 calls and 20900 - 21100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.

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