Analysts say lack of strong moves in stocks or sectors contributed to markets moving indecisively.
Softening rural consumption and the likelihood of weak corporate earnings in the March quarter saw investors dump stocks.
Rise in crude oil price and rally in global equities aided the sentiment
Mutual funds, as experts and custodians of another set of retail investors' savings, play a speculative game they are neither supposed to nor equipped to do, cautions Debashis Basu.
Derivatives exchange DGCX started trading futures for the S&P BSE Sensex
The Nifty and Bank Nifty ended at record closing high of 7,913 and 15,865 respectively.
PSU bank shares were the top gainers on hopes of a rate by the RBI on easing consumer inflation
tailwinds of a remarkable year and handsome investor returns, Indian equities are set for an eventful journey in 2024, with a slew of local and global cues -- varying from interest rates to Lok Sabha polls to geopolitical happenings. Analysts are of the view that the bull run in the domestic equity market will continue, and over the next 3-6 months, the benchmark indices -- Sensex and Nifty -- could climb up to 7 per cent. In 2023, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 11,399.52 points or 18.73 per cent, and the NSE Nifty climbed 3,626.1 points or 20 per cent.
Lupin was the top gainer after the USFDA cleared its Goa facility
Among key stocks, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, L&T, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs and ICICI Bank, all up between 1%-3%
The bias for the Sensex is likely to remain bearish as long as the index sustains below 18,900-odd levels. On the downside, the index could slide to 17,300-odd levels
Bank shares were the top gainer in early trades with Bank of Baroda up over 4%.
SIP top-ups are especially beneficial for young investors, who may start with a small SIP installment and grow it over their working careers, says Dwaipayan Bose.
DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL, YES Bank, Union Bank of India and Maruti Suzuki are down 4-12% on NSE.
'Investors should hold equity assets for 3 to 5 years.'
Stock market investors are expecting a balanced Budget with a focus on job creation, increased spending on infrastructure, reigning in the deficit, and bringing the economy back on track, experts said on Wednesday. Stock markets have been subdued in the run-up to the Union Budget with BSE's benchmark Sensex is almost flat so far this month. Even the corporate earning season failed to excite the markets, while some indices like IT and bankex have seen some positive movements.
State owned banks SBI and PNB were the top Nifty gainers along with ICICI Bank and auto shares.
Shares of ING Vysya Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank rallied by up to 6% on the BSE on reports that Kotak Mahindra Bank in final stages to buy the bank.
Markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday on account of Holi and Good Friday, respectively.
Bank of Baroda Q4 results: Key brokerages have raised their target prices on Bank of Baroda after the state-owned lender posted better-than-expected March quarter (Q4FY23) results. Analysts now see up to 29 per cent upside in the stock from a one-year perspective as they believe BoB is well-placed among the large public banks with nearly all key business metrics moving closer to the top-tier banks. Valuations, too, remain attractive despite steady strong quarterly performances.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 30.30 points at 28,161.72 and the 50-share Nifty dipped 7.95 points at 8,543.
The index options also touched a record high of Rs 4.9 lakh crore.
Financials declined amid profit taking while energy shares fell after the government hiked excise duty on transport fuels.
Investors were seen in a cheerful mood and widened their positions in frontliners as well as midcap and smallcap stocks to mark the beginning of their new accounts
Despite a healthy March-May quarter (Q3FY22) show by global IT consulting firm Accenture, Indian IT companies shed up to 3 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday as analysts continued to highlight medium-term pain points for the sector. The Nifty IT index settled 0.9 per cent lower on Friday, as against a 0.9 per cent rise in the Nifty50 index. According to analysts at ICICI Securities, Accenture's Q3 saw moderation in year-on-year growth rate across verticals and US regions, which signals at likely normalisation in revenue momentum for Indian IT services going forward.
Devangshu Datta believes you should pick stocks trading at much lower valuations than the market average.
'It is easy to dramatise the events of today, but it is far more important to focus on the fact that we have a radically overvalued financial sector. It is a house of cards.'
On the sectoral map, consumer durables stayed in the lead by surging 2.39 per cent, followed by realty index, oil and gas and infra.
Markets have witnessed a gap down opening mirroring losses in the global equities with US markets taking a hit on worries about the health of Chinese economy.
This was at a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council, chaired by him. Chidambaram, set to resign on Friday to make way for his successor, called upon the regulators and the ministry to be ready and take necessary action.
Sensex closed 63.82 points higher at 26,851.05 in Muhurat trading; Nifty rises 18.65 points to end at 8,014.55.
SBI plunged over 3% after posting a 34.57% fall in net profit to Rs 2,538 crore for the quarter ended September 2016 on rise in provisions for non-performing loans.
Markets recorded their biggest single-day fall since August 1 amid growth concerns in the euro zone.
Bubbles can inflate indefinitely and also burst, with deep corrections, warns Devangshu Datta.
Investors cheered a sharp decline in the Current Account Deficit, which stands at a 4 year low as exports picked up and gold imports reduced.
Promoters, institutional investors have started increasing their holdings in domestic private sector companies.
The BSE Mid-and Small-cap indices outperformed their larger peers rising 72 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively, during Samvat 2070.
Weak GDP data and unfaouvrable global data has pulled down Sensex, Nifty.
Asian shares ended higher after a string of positive US economic data.
The Nifty had hit its third successive record high of 7,922.70 today.
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