Post Session: Quick Review

Indian benchmarks ended last trading day of week in green territory despite India’s WPI inflation accelerated. In today’s session, Nifty touched new all-time high level of 23,490.40. Investors overlooked the negative cues from other Asian markets. As for broader indices, the BSE Mid cap index and Small cap index ended with gains of over a percent. Buying was witnessed in Auto sector’s stocks, while selling was seen in IT sector’s stocks.

Markets made optimistic start tracking mostly positive cues from Wall Street overnight. Soon, markets turned negative for little time. But, further markets gained traction to trade higher, as some support came with credit rating agency Moody's Ratings’ statement that India is expected to remain the region's fastest-growing economy in the Asia-Pacific region in the second half of the year 2024, fuelled by domestic demand growth. The report also noted that India, Indonesia, and the Philippines were the key growth outperformers in the first half of the year 2024. Besides, industry body the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. In afternoon session, markets maintained their gains even after wholesale price index (WPI) accelerated in the month of May 2024 to 2.61% from 1.26% in April 2024, due to increase in prices of food articles, minerals, basic metals, computer, electronic & optical products and electrical equipments. The Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, increased 0.54% to 187.7 (provisional) in May 2024 from 186.7 (provisional) for the month of April 2024, on the back of rise in prices of food articles and minerals. In late afternoon session, markets scaled day’s high levels with Nifty and Sensex settling above the psychological 23,450 and 76,900 levels, respectively.

On the global front, European markets were trading lower amid uncertainty over China's response to EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The shift of the EU Parliament to the right also raised questions about the future of enlargement, defense and the economy. Asian markets ended mixed after the Bank of Japan delayed its normalization of policy as policymakers decided to unveil a detailed plan for reducing its bond purchase programme at its upcoming meeting in July. Back home, rating agency ICRA in its latest report has said that backed by healthy demand prospects for the cement sector, large cement companies are looking to increase their capacity and maintain market share through organic and inorganic expansions.

The BSE Sensex ended at 76,992.77, up by 181.87 points or 0.24% after trading in a range of 76,549.05 and 77,081.30. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index gained 1.18%, while Small cap index was up by 1.03%. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Industrials up by 1.68%, Capital Goods up by 1.62%, Consumer Durables up by 1.38%, Telecom up by 1.31% and Auto was up by 1.26% while, IT down by 0.73% and TECK was down by 0.46% were the only losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.20%, Titan Co up by 1.79%, HDFC Bank up by 1.05%, Tata Motors up by 0.78% and Reliance Industries up by 0.76%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.35%, TCS down by 1.17%, Wipro down by 1.05%, HCL Tech. down by 0.86% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.47% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) accelerated in the month of May 2024 to 2.61% from 1.26% in April 2024, due to increase in prices of food articles, minerals, basic metals, computer, electronic & optical products and electrical equipments.

The Component wise, primary articles index, having weight of 22.62%, increased 0.54% to 187.7 (provisional) in May 2024 from 186.7 (provisional) for the month of April 2024, on the back of rise in prices of food articles and minerals. However, prices of non-food articles and crude petroleum & natural gas declined in May 2024 as compared to April 2024.

Fuel & Power index, having weight of 13.15%, declined 2.71% to 150.6 (provisional) in May 2024 from 154.8 (provisional) for the month of April, 2024, as prices of electricity declined in May. But, prices of mineral oils and coal remained unchanged in May 2024 as compared to April 2024. 

Besides, Manufactured Products constituting the major portion of the index with weight of 64.23%, increased by 0.64% to 141.7 (provisional) in May 2024 from 140.8 (provisional) for the month of April 2024. Meanwhile, for the month of March, 2024 the final Wholesale Price Index and inflation rate for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011- 12=100) stood at 151.4 and 0.26% respectively.

The CNX Nifty ended at 23,465.60, up by 66.70 points or 0.29% after trading in a range of 23,334.25 and 23,490.40. There were 29 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were Eicher Motors up by 2.78%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 2.34%, Adani Ports up by 1.87%, Shriram Finance up by 1.78% and Titan Company up by 1.67%. On the flip side, Tech Mahindra down by 1.26%, TCS down by 1.19%, Wipro down by 1.06%, HCL Tech down by 0.91% and SBI down by 0.56% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading lower; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 30.15 points or 0.37% to 8,133.52, France’s CAC fell 168.46 points or 2.23% to 7,539.56 and Germany’s DAX was down by 193.39 points or 1.07% to 18,072.29.

Asian markets ended mixed on Friday tracking the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight amid fading expectations of a series of interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve after the Fed officials forecasted just one interest rate cut this year. Seoul shares gained on sustained strength in technology shares and signs of falling inflation in the United States. Data showed the annual rate of producer price growth slowed to 2.2% in May from an upwardly revised 2.3% in April. Japanese shares gained after the BoJ opted to leave policy settings unchanged, signalling a decision on paring bond purchases would come next month. Chinese shares gained marginally even by new European Union tariffs against the country’s major electric vehicles. Kospi average marginally rose as the government extended a market-wide ban on short-selling of stocks through the first quarter of 2025.