Stock Market Today: Tracking strong global cues, the key benchmark indices closed higher in the last hour of trade on Thursday. Rising after a day’s hiatus, after Russia’s Foreign Minister reportedly said there was “some hope for a compromise” in talks with Ukraine. Besides, reports also added that Russia was “seriously” considering neutral status for Ukraine. That apart, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Ukraine was unlikely to join NATO “anytime soon”.
This, coupled with expectations of a 25-basis point rate hike by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) later tonight to tame decadal high inflation, and a breather in crude oil rally drove investors towards riskier assets.
The S&P BSE Sensex surged 1,040 points, or 1.85 per cent, to settle at 56,817 levels on Wednesday. The Nifty50, on the other hand, shut shop near the 17,000-mark at 16,975, up 312 points or 1.87 per cent.
Ultratech Cement (up 4.6 per cent) was the top Nifty gainer today. This was followed by Axis Bank, Shree Cement, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, Infosys, Britannia Industries, IOC, Grasim Ind, and Tata Motors that rose between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent.
On the downside, only Cipla, Sun Pharma, and Tata Consumer Products ended in the red, slipping up to 1.4 per cent.
Broader markets, too, advanced in-tandem with their large-cap peers. The BSE MidCap index gained 1.8 per cent while the BSE SmallCap index edged 1.4 per cent higher.
Sectorally, all the key indices ended in the positive territory led by the Nifty Realty index (up 3.6 per cent), the Nifty Metal index (up 2.6 per cent), and the Nifty Private Bank index (up 2.3 per cent).
Easing oil and commodity prices are supporting global market recovery with the focus on US Fed’s policy outcome later today. Investors are also tracking updates on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine negotiations that have not made any breakthrough progress so far.
Neeraj Chadawar, head – quantitative equity research, Axis Securities, said: “The Indian market rebounded from the losses after taking positive cues from Wall Street. Sentiments were further supported by the cool-off in the oil prices, and the progress on the peace talk between Russia and Ukraine conflict. Now the market is waiting for the outcome of the FED meeting as the current geopolitical developments are adding further inflationary pressure in the global market, and it is important to see the view of central banks. The wider view is that central banks first focus more on controlling the inflationary effects rather than growth effects.”
“Volatility will continue to be on a higher side before we conclude concrete market direction. It is likely to go down to settle below the long-term average as soon as we enter into a rate hike cycle, and the trajectory for the actual number of rate hikes projected for 2022 will be known to the market. The second half of 2022 is likely to be more stable compared to the first half,” Chadawar added.
Global cues
On Tuesday, the US markets logged smart gains supported by buying in tech stocks. The S&P 500 rose 2.1 per cent, the Dow Jones gained 1.8 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.9 per cent.
Oil prices slipped below the $100 mark with the Brent Crude settling 6.5 per cent down at $99.91 per barrel, while WTI crude dropped 6.4 per cent to close at $96.44 as Russia suggested it would allow a revival of the Iran nuclear deal to go forward.
In Asia, most markets were higher this morning with Nikkei and Hang Seng indices rising 1.3 per cent and 2.2 per cent, respectively. In China, Shanghai Composite and Shenzhen Component also held marginal gains. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.5 per cent.
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