Stock Market Today: Nifty and Sensex brace for a positive open on Friday

India’s Nifty and Sensex are set to open higher on Friday, tracking positive global stocks.
Nifty and Sensex settled slightly higher on Thursday after losing over 1.0% a day before.
US Core PCE inflation came in line with estimates, India’s GDP blewout with 8.4% YoY in Q3.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, eye a positive opening on Friday after outstanding India’s growth numbers.

Gift Nifty futures are up nearly 0.25% on the day so far, pointing to an upbeat start while traders could take the positive lead from Wall Street and Asian stock markets.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 closed 0.14% higher at 21,982.80 and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 gained 0.27% on the day to finish at 72,500.30.

Stock market news

On Thursday, top gainers on Nifty were IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports. Meanwhile, the main losers were Apollo Hospitals, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and UPL.
Shriram Finance will replace UPL in the Nifty 50 index from March 28.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in India declined 13% to USD 32.03 billion in April-December 2023, according to the latest government data.
Brightcom Group tanked 7% after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) refused to lift restrictions on promoter.
Reliance, Viacom 18 and Walt Disney announced a binding agreement to merge their business on Wednesday.
India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 8.4% on an annual basis in the third quarter (October-December), as against a 7.6% in the previous quarter, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed Thursday.
The US stock markets closed higher on Thursday after the key US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index increased 0.4% for the month and 2.8% from a year ago, as expected.
Markets are currently pricing in just about a 20% chance that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) could begin easing rates in May, much lower than an over 90% chance a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. For the June meeting, the probability for a rate cut now stands at about 62%, down from 70% seen a week ago.
Attention now turns toward the US ISM Manufacturing PMI for fresh trading incentives.

Sensex FAQs

What is the Sensex?

The Sensex is a name for one of India’s most closely monitored stock indexes. The term was coined in the 1980s by analyst Deepak Mohoni by mashing the words sensitive and index together. The index plots a weighted average of the share price of 30 of the most established stocks on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Each corporation's weighting is based on its “free-float capitalization”, or the value of all its shares readily available for trading.

What factors drive the Sensex?

Given it is a composite, the value of the Sensex is first and foremost dependent on the performance of its constituent companies as revealed in their quarterly and annual results. Government policies are another factor. In 2016 the government decided to phase out high value currency notes, for example, and certain companies saw their share price fall as a result. When the government decided to cut corporation tax in 2019, meanwhile, the Sensex gained a boost. Other factors include the level of interest rates set by the Reserve Bank of India, since that dictates the cost of borrowing, climate change, pandemics and natural disasters

What are the key milestones for the Sensex?

The Sensex started life on April 1 1979 at a base level of 100. It reached its highest recorded level so far, at 73,328, on Monday, January 15, 2024 (this is being written in Feb 2024). The Index closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time on February 7, 2006. On March 13, 2014 the Sensex closed higher than Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index to become the major Asian stock index with the highest value. The index’s biggest gain in a single day occurred on April 7, 2020, when it rose 2,476 points; its deepest single-day loss occurred on January 21, 2008, when it plunged 1,408 points due the US subprime crisis.

What major corporations are in the Sensex?

Major companies within the Sensex include Reliance Industries Ltd, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Infosys, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra.