Stock market today: BSE Sensex and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, tanked in trade on Friday. While BSE Sensex went below 79,400, Nifty50 was just above 24,000. At 10:54 AM, BSE Sensex was trading at 79,304.00, down 640 points or 0.80%. Nifty50 was at 24,007.40, down 181 points or 0.75%.
Indian equity indices declined on Friday, influenced by global market trends, with major companies like Infosys, TCS, and ICICI Bank leading the downturn.
Notable decliners included ITC, TCS, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Zomato, and Tech Mahindra, each dropping up to 1%. Conversely, NTPC, SBI, Adani Ports, Nestle India, and Tata Steel showed positive movement.
DMart shares surged by 10% following reports of a 17% year-on-year standalone revenue increase for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. MOIL shares rose 6% after announcing strong performance figures.
Sector-wise, Nifty Pharma and IT indices declined over 0.5%, whilst Auto, Media, Metal, PSU Bank, Realty, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas sectors showed gains.
The US dollar reached a two-year peak following strong labour market data, suggesting a slower pace of Federal Reserve rate cuts. The Fed indicated two rate reductions in 2025, revised down from earlier projections of four cuts.
“The uncanny ability of the market to surprise was evident in yesterday’s massive 445 point rally in Nifty. Even though FII buying helped in the rally, at Rs 1,506 crores net buying it was not good enough to trigger such a massive 1.8% rally in Nifty,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
Asian markets showed modest gains, whilst US equities closed lower. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index rose 0.33% but remained on track for a weekly decline of nearly 1%.
Foreign institutional investors purchased equities worth Rs 1,506 crore on January 2, whilst domestic institutional investors acquired Rs 22 crore worth of shares.
Oil prices continued their upward trend, with Brent crude at $76.09 per barrel and WTI at $73.32 per barrel, reflecting optimism about potential government policy support.
The Indian rupee depreciated by 3 paise to 85.78 against the US dollar, whilst the dollar index decreased 0.19% to 109.18.
