Stock Market LIVE: Markets trade higher! Nifty above 23,350, Sensex above 76,800; Realty and Auto stocks leads the opening gains – Market News

“Gold prices saw some softness post Fed’s announcement in the domestic market. Since Q2 of the financial year is usually a dull phase due to monsoon and shradh, we expect the prices to remain dampened during this period. Nevertheless, we hope for the demand to see a gradual uptick at the onset of festivals and remain buoyant till the end of FY25,” said Colin Shah, MD of Kama Jewelry.

Courtesy: NSE

Sugar stocks saw a rally after Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that India successfully reached 15% ethanol blending in May and is on track to meet the 20% target by 2025. “In the month of May only, we were able to cross 15 per cent of ethanol blending. Based on the current progress, I am reasonably confident that the 20 per cent blending target will be completed by the year 2025,” said Puri.

Commenting on Gold outlook Bhavik Patel, Senior Commodity/Currency Research Analyst at TradeBulls Securities said that Next year when the Fed plays catch-up to everybody else, the U.S. dollar will be weakening and that is when we will see gold shine. This week we expect gold to trade in range of 70,200-72,200 in MCX with any correction near 70,700 an opportunity to go long with stoploss of 70,000.

The NSE Nifty 50 was up 0.31% at 23,396, While the BSE Sensex was up 0.32% at 76,854.

Courtesy: BSE

“A practical approach taken by the Fed today by maintaining policy rates at 5.25–5.50%. If it sounds hawkish, then it is. The Fed is trying to balance the economy with maximum employment, stable demand & supply. The Fed still finds the inflation rate too high and doesn’t want to ease too early and face the risk of inflation coming back. Until inflation sustainably moves towards 2%, we can’t expect any easing. At the most, we can expect only one cut this year, not more. The Fed will be totally data-dependent until inflation is well anchored,” said Manish Jain, Director of the Institutional Business (Equity & FI) Division at Mirae Asset Capital Markets.

Shares of L&T Finance surged over 4% to an intra-day high of Rs 179.18 on NSE on Thursday. This spike followed the trading of nearly 8.82 crore shares on the counter.

Commenting on the Technical outlook of Nifty Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities, said The Nifty closed flat after a strong initial hour of trading, encountering resistance around 23,400. However, the short-term trend remains positive as the index stayed above 23,300. In the near term, the index might continue consolidating within the 23,300-23,500 range. A decisive breakout above 23,500 could trigger a rally towards 23,800.

Nestle India, Divis Labs, HDFC Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, and Shriram transport finance are the top gainers on NSE Nifty 50 index whereas the top laggards include Hindustan Unilever, Britannia Industries, Tata Consumers Products, and ICICI Bank.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 426.63 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DII) mopped shares worth Rs 233.75 crore on June 12, 2024, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

“Nifty yesterday closed at an all-time high level at 23322.95. Today, markets will react to the FOMC meeting outcome, US CPI data, and Indian macro data as well. The US Federal Reserve held rates steady, indicating only one rate cut this year but a more aggressive rate cut path for next year. Traders holding long positions can hold with a stop loss of 23200 on a closing basis for the targets of 23500–23700 levels,” said Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking.

“There is good news on the inflation front, both in the US and in India. In the US, May CPI inflation has declined slightly less than expected to 3.3% with MoM inflation remaining flat. However, the economy continues to remain strong and there are no clear signs of the labour market loosening. Therefore, Fed chief Jerome Powell has kept rates unchanged and hinted at only 1 rate cut in 2024 and possibly 4 rate cuts in 2025.

In India, May CPI inflation has declined to 4.75% and core inflation has come to only 3.1%. This paves the way for a rate cut by the MPC in October.

The takeaway from the inflation numbers is that the disinflation process is well on track. From the market perspective, this is positive news, particularly for banking stocks,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the dollar against a basket of six major currencies, declined by 0.54% to 104.70.

India‘s retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased in May 2024, dropping to a 12-month low of 4.75% from 4.83% in April, according to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) today.

Meanwhile, US inflation data for May 2024 shows a significant slowdown, with the annual rate declining to 3.3% from 3.4% in April, falling short of economists’ forecasts of 3.4%, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The US Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it would keep its key interest rate unchanged, indicating expectations for only one rate cut before the end of the year. This marks a significant change from earlier forecasts, which had projected three rate reductions, as inflation, despite recent easing, remains persistently high.

In a statement following its two-day meeting, the Fed acknowledged the economy‘s robust growth and noted that hiring has continued to be strong. Officials also observed “modest” progress toward achieving their 2% inflation target in recent months, presenting a more optimistic view compared to their early May assessment, when they expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of inflation control.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq achieved record closing highs for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, buoyed by softer-than-expected inflation data. However, the indexes pulled back from their intraday peaks after the Federal Reserve announced it anticipates only one interest rate cut this year, Reuters reported.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose by 264.89 points, or 1.53%, to close at 17,608.44. The S&P 500 gained 45.71 points, or 0.85%, ending at 5,421.03. In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 35.21 points, or 0.09%, finishing at 38,712.21.