Sensex Rises 300 Points Ahead Of US Fed Decision; Nifty Above 19,750

Ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision and key corporate earnings, Indian equity markets opened marginally higher on Wednesday, led by Reliance, L&T, Tata Motors, and Infosys.

The BSE Sensex was trading 298 points or 0.45% higher at 66,654, while NSE Nifty50 was trading at 19,764, up 86 points or 0.43% at around 9.37 am.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors opened over 3% higher after the firm reported a higher-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 3,203 crore in Q1 FY24. Meanwhile, L&T, Power Grid, Infosys, Wipro, JSW Steel, and HUL also opened with gains.

On the flip side, Asian Paints, M&M, HDFC Bank, TCS, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, and Titan opened with losses.

Among individual stocks, Ceat opened nearly 5% higher as its Q1 FY24 net profit zoomed to Rs 145 crore from Rs 9 crore in the corresponding quarter. Whereas, shares of Can Fin Home declined 7% after the company’s employees committed nearly Rs 38.53 crore fraud.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Auto surged 0.61%, and Nifty FMCG rose 0.58%. Banks, IT, metal, pharma, realty and healthcare sectors also opened with gains. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 advanced 0.30%, and Nifty Smallcap 100 gained 0.16%.

Experts View

Globally market participants will be closely watching the Fed chief Jerome Powell’s comments about the disinflation process in the US and the likely trend in interest rates, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

“A 25 bp rate hike, already discounted by the market, will not trigger any market move. But if the Fed chief indicates that inflation is coming under control and, therefore, no further rate hikes are needed, that will be a big trigger for markets to move up,” Vijayakumar added.

Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, “Nifty made a near hammer like pattern after a two-day fall, suggesting possibility of a short-term upward reversal. Nifty could stay in the 19783-19567 band for the near term.”

Global Markets

Wall Street equities closed higher overnight, ahead of an expected 25 basis-point rate hike by the Fed later in the day and strong corporate earnings from Google owner Alphabet and Microsoft.

Asian markets were trading mostly weaker on Wednesday in the run-up to the Fed decision. China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.35%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.8%.

FII/DII Tracker

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 1,089 crore of Indian equities on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic investors Rs 334 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.