Stock Market LIVE Updates, Thursday, October 10, 2024: Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were trading higher on Thursday, tracking overnight gains on the Wall Street, along with gains in the Asia Pacific region.
At 2 PM, the BSE Sensex was up 219.19 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 81,686, while the Nifty 50 was at 25,019, up 38 points, or 0.15 per cent.
In the afternoon, nine stocks out of the 30 on the BSE Sensex were trading in red, with Infosys (down 1.33 per cent), followed by Tech Mahindra, Titan, Hindustan Unilever, and Sun Pharma, emerging as the top drags, while Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 3.69 per cent), Power Grid Corp., NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Axis Bank, were the top gainers.
On the Nifty 50, 30 out of the 50 stocks were trading higher, with gains led by Kotak Mahindra Bank, (up 3.64 per cent), followed by Power Grid Corp., BEL, NTPC, and Mahindra & Mahindra. Among the losers were Cipla (down 2.07 per cent), followed by Adani Enterprises, Trent, Hero MotoCorp and Infosys.
Across sectors, the Pharma and Healthcare indices were the top two drags, falling 1.4 per cent and 1.55 per cent, respectively.
They were followed by the IT, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Realty indices, while the Bank index had climbed 0.85 per cent, followed by the Financial Services index, which was up 0.64 per cent.
Meanwhile, the broader market indices were mixed, with the Nifty Midcap 100 declining 0.20 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 gaining 0.23 per cent.
Chinese stocks resumed their rally on Thursday, fanned by expectations a briefing from finance officials this weekend would deliver anticipated fiscal stimulus, while the dollar lingered near a two-month high before a US inflation report.
Mainland shares got a lift early in the Asia session as China’s central bank kicked off its 500 billion yuan facility to spur capital markets, a plan it announced late September as part of a series of stimulus measures.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index rose about 3 per cent, partially reversing the previous day’s 7 per cent drop, which was triggered by some investor concern about the lack of details in the stimulus package.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged over 4 per cent, after slipping 1.3 per cent on Wednesday and is up 26 per cent this year.
That left MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan 1.25 per cent higher, with futures indicating European bourses were due for a slightly higher open.
The market’s attention is now firmly on a Chinese finance ministry press conference on Saturday that will provide details of the fiscal stimulus plan. The theme of the news conference is “intensifying countercyclical adjustment of fiscal policy to promote high-quality economic development.”
Meanwhile, overnight, the S&P 500 and the Dow closed at record highs after the release of Federal Reserve meeting minutes and ahead of September inflation data.
The minutes showed a “substantial majority” of Fed officials at the September meeting supported beginning an era of easier monetary policy with an outsized half-point rate cut.
However, there appeared even broader agreement that the initial move would not commit the Fed to any particular pace of rate reductions in the future, the minutes showed.
Markets are pricing in an 82 per cent chance of a 25 basis point cut next month, CME FedWatch tool showed, with investors scaling back expectations for aggressive rate cuts after last week’s strong U.S. jobs report.
Investor focus will be on inflation data on Thursday in the form of the consumer price index (CPI) for insight into the Fed’s rate path, while the corporate earnings season kicks off with bank earnings on Friday.
September’s CPI is likely to show core inflation holding steady at a 3.2 per cent year-on-year clip, according to economists polled by Reuters.
The shifting US interest rate expectations have boosted the dollar, with the dollar index, which measures the currency against six key rivals, steady after climbing to the highest since August 16 overnight.
In commodities, oil prices rose as investors contended with rising tensions in the Middle East and its impact on oil supply, as well as a spike in demand as a major storm barrelled into Florida.
Brent crude futures was 0.78 per cent higher at $77.18 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures rose 0.83 per cent at $73.85 a barrel.
