Markets hover near highest point of the day

The Indian equity markets continued to hover near highest point of the day in late afternoon session following the Federal Reserve's monetary policy announcement. The market turned jubilant after Fed signalled that the central bank is anticipating rate cut by half a percent by the end of 2025 despite concerns over high inflationary pressures due to Trump’s tariffs policies. Traders took sigh of relief after Fed chair Jerome Powell has downplayed the risk of recession in US and hinted that tariffs will have short term impact on the inflation. The broader market experienced value buying after investors opted to buy beaten up stocks. 

On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading mixed after People's Bank of China kept the 1-year loan prime rate at 3.1 percent and the 5-year LPR at 3.6 percent despite economic concerns. European equity markets were trading mostly in red ahead of the Bank of England's rate decision due later in the session, with the central bank widely expected to keep interest rates on hold due to tariff uncertainties and the British government's impending tax hike for employers.

Back home, FMCG stocks experienced heavy buying after Crisil rating stated that the Indian FMCG sector is expected to witness a mild revenue rebound of 100 to 200 basis points to 6-8 per cent in fiscal 2026 owed to a gradual recovery in urban and steady rural demand.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 76438.50, up by 989.45 points or 1.31% after trading in a range of 75684.58 and 76456.25. There were 27 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up by 0.72%, while Small cap index was up by 0.81%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 2.05%, TECK up by 2.05%, Oil & Gas up by 1.69%, IT up by 1.54% and Energy up by 1.51%, while there were no losers on BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Company up by 4.13%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.01%, HCL Technologies up by 2.09%, Infosys up by 1.98% and TCS up by 1.93%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.28%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.58% and Ultratech Cement down by 0.18% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, in a major step to boost financial inclusion and provide wide-ranging payment options to the common man, the Union Cabinet has given a green signal for the ‘Incentive Scheme for promotion of low-value BHIM-UPI transactions Person to Merchant (P2M)’ for the financial year 2024-25 with an estimated outlay of Rs 1,500 crore. Only the UPI (P2M) transactions up to Rs 2,000 for Small Merchants are covered under the scheme.

The government has set an incentive rate of 0.15 per cent for a transaction value of up to Rs 2,000 made to small merchants, while large merchants in the same value bracket will receive no incentive. For transactions exceeding Rs 2,000, there will be no incentive for anyone.

Under the scheme, for all the quarters of the scheme, 80% of the admitted claim amount by the acquiring banks will be disbursed without any conditions. The reimbursement of the remaining 20% of the admitted claim amount for each quarter will be contingent upon fulfilment of the conditions such as 10% of the admitted claim will be provided only when the technical decline of the acquiring bank will be less than 0.75%; and the remaining 10% of the admitted claim will be provided only when the system uptime of the acquiring bank will be greater than 99.5%.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 23213.60, up by 306.00 points or 1.34% after trading in a range of 22973.95 and 23216.70. There were 46 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Titan Company up by 4.06%, Bharti Airtel up by 4.01%, Bajaj Auto up by 2.88%, Eicher Motors up by 2.64% and BPCL up by 2.57%. On the flip side, Indusind Bank down by 1.39%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.58%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.12% and Trent down by 0.11% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed;Jakarta Composite gained 67.22 points or 1.05% to 6,378.88, KOSPI increased 8.48 points or 0.32% to 2,637.10, Taiwan Weighted added 416.43 points or 1.86% to 22,377.26 and Straits Times rose 25.01 points or 0.64% to 3,933.32, while Hang Seng declined 551.19 points or 2.28% to 24,219.95 and Shanghai Composite weakened 17.48 points or 0.51% to 3,408.95. Meanwhile, Japanese markets remain closed for a holiday.

European markets were trading mostly in red; France’s CAC fell 28.68 points or 0.35% to 8,142.79 and Germany’s DAX lost 122.64 points or 0.53% to 23,165.42, while UK’s FTSE 100 increased 21.78 points or 0.25% to 8,728.44.