Sensex Today | Stock Market Live Updates : Sensex down 400pts, Nifty below 22,100; IT, Metal down 1%, Nifty Bank 0.5%

In a recent note, brokerage house Jefferies said that continued reforms should maintain India’s ‘Fastest growing large economy’ status, adding that strong trends in domestic flows have reduced market volatility and decadal low foreign ownership offers a valuation cushion.

The brokerage has presented 26 top ‘Buy’ Ideas for the Indian Markets. These are ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, ICICI Lombard, Shriram Finance, KFin Tech, Eicher Motors, TVS Motors, Coal India, L&T, Thermax, NTPC, JSW Energy, Godrej Properties, Macrotech Developers, Bharti Airtel, Honasa Consumer, Zomato, Piramal Pharma, Apollo Hospitals, Ultratech Cement, Ambuja Cement, Kajaria Ceramics, Amber Enterprises, Supreme Industries, and PI Industries. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : State Bank of India and ICICI Bank are engaged in an engrossing battle of market value, with the state-run lender making steady gains over its private sector rival over the past few trading sessions, with many experts of the belief that it may nudge ahead soon.

More than four years ago, ICICI Bank, India’s second largest private bank, had crept ahead of SBI, India’s largest bank, in terms of market value. In the past 11 months (10 March 2023 to 7 February 2024), it steadily widened the gap with SBI to a daily average of over ₹1.44 trillion. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Barring Media and Auto, all sectoral indices were in the red, with IT emerging as the biggest loser, down 1.62%, followed by Metal, down 1.03%.

The broader market was largely in the red, barring the Smallcap index which was marginally up by 0.01%. Meanwhile, the volatility index VIX had surged more than 5.5% since morning.

Sensex Today Live : L&T, Power Grid Corp., Adani Enterprises, SBI Life and Adani Ports & SEZ, were the top gainers on Nifty 50.

Sensex Today Live : Asian Paints, down nearly 4%, was the biggest drag on Sensex, while Infosys, Airtel, Tata Steel, and JSW Steel were the other losers, down around 1.5% at noon.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were in the red on Monday, with Asian peers stopping short of a seven-month high in anticipation of inflation data across countries.

At 12 pm, Sensex was down 390.43 points, or 0.53%, at 72,752.37 and Nifty was down 110.60 points, or 0.5%, at 22,102.10.

Sensex Today Live : Demand tailwinds to flow into distributions

The REIT manager’s view of strong recovery in leasing demand driven by GCCs remains intact. The manager envisages potential for incremental NOI accretion of INR 12.2bn over the next few years driven by: 1) INR 3.7bn from lease-up of 5.7msf vacant area; 2) INR 7.7bn from lease-up of 6.9msf upcoming area; and 3) INR 0.8bn from 518 new hotel keys.

The manager continues to evaluate inorganic growth opportunities from its ~9msf RoFO asset pipeline in Chennai and Bengaluru.

Given demand recovery, we see portfolio occupancy of over 90% by FY26E, resulting in FY25E DPU of INR 22.7/unit vs. INR 21.7/unit in FY24E with FY26E DPU of INR 26.9/unit.

Retain ADD and TP of INR 405/unit based on 1x Mar’25E NAV.

Key risks: Slower recovery in leasing; and higher portfolio vacancy.

Strong pre-leasing, GCC demand to drive NOI growth

Sensex Today Live : Equity benchmarks recorded fresh All Time High of 22297 and concluded the volatile session at 22213, up 0.7%. Broader market relatively underperformed as Nifty midcap gained 0.2% while small cap lost 0.1%. Sectorally, consumption, realty outperformed while IT, PSU underperformed.

Technical Outlook

· The index recorded resolute breakout from past five week’s consolidation and settled the volatile week on a positive note. As a result, weekly price action formed a bull candle with long lower shadow, highlighting acceleration of uptrend as buying demand emerged at elevated support base

· The consolidation breakout supported by faster pace of retracement (as past four week’s decline got retraced in just a single week), signifies resumption of uptrend that makes us reiterate our positive bias and expect Nifty to head towards 22700 in coming week’s. We believe, bouts of volatility from hereon owing to global development would offer incremental buying opportunity. Thereby, dips should be capitalized to accumulate quality stocks as strong support is placed at 21800. Our positive bias is further validated by following observations:

· Heavyweight Banking index (commanding >33% weight) has resolved higher after forming strong base above 200-day ema

· Buoyant global cues as US, Japan indices hit New Highs

· The cool off in oil prices and bond yields are likely to act as tailwind

· On the sectoral front, BFSI expected to lead well supported by IT, Oil&Gas, pharma, Capital Goods

· On the stock front, in large cap we prefer Reliance Industries, SBI, Infosys, Adani ports, Tata Steel, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Gail, ONGC while in midcaps Bank of Baroda, Cochin Shipyard, Astral, Delhivery, Havells, Coforge, Indo Count Industries, Granules, BHEL are looking good

· Structurally, Nifty appears to have approached maturity of seasonal correction in election year (historically, in election year index tends to bottom out in Feb/March followed by pre-election rally). The strong rebound from key support highlights elevated buying demand that makes us revise support base at 21800 as it is confluence of:

· 61.8% retracement of current up move off mid Feb low of 21530 is placed at 21823

· Last week’s low is placed at 21875

· 20 days EMA is placed around 21910

Sensex Today Live : Rationale

Cement stocks have shown significant resilience in the recent market volatility and exhibited strong rebound with the markets. In the space, ACC is likely to perform well as it has moved above its major hurdle and significant Call base of 2700 last week. We expect stock to find further momentum on the back of incremental long additions seen in the stock. We believe stock to head towards ₹2875 levels in coming weeks.

Sensex Today Live : Retail investors are often in the lookout for the stocks and sectors that are likely to perform well in the immediate future. When most small and mid-caps are believed to be overpriced, and broader market index of Nifty 50, too, is trading at a premium — there are a few sectors and stocks that are still a ‘good’ buy.

Notably, one techie Jishnu Mohan on Feb 7 posted on X platform that the whole recession situation made him “at the lowest confidence level in his career”. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were in the red on Monday.

At 11 am, Sensex was down 397.53 points, or 0.54%, at 72,745.27 and Nifty was down 109 points, or 0.49%, at 22,103.70.

Sensex Today Live : Jaideep Hansraj, CEO of Kotak Securities says investors should continue investing through SIP as timing the market is a challenging task. In an interview with Mint, he says investors need to be stock-specific or bottom-up, as the top-down approach may fail. (Read edited excerpts here.)

Sensex Today Live : Equity benchmark Nifty 50 hit its fresh record high of 22,297.50 last week and ended almost a per cent higher on the weekly scale. On Monday, February 26, the market benchmark opened lower and traded lacklustre in the morning session amid weak global cues.

On the technical front, experts pointed out that the Nifty has broken out of a 45-day consolidation period, indicating a potential upside towards 22,500. According to Santosh Meena, Head of Research at Swastika Investmart, the immediate support for the Nifty 50 lies at the 20-day moving average (DMA) of around 21,900, while the 50-DMA at 21,700 serves as a key support level. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Aditya Birla Group led-Grasim Industries is set to disrupt the oligopolistic Indian decorative paints industry with its strong distribution strategy and manufacturing prowess. Under its paints brand, Birla Opus, six plants are set to come on stream by the end of FY25. Collectively, these plants would expand the domestic paints industry’s current capacity of 1,332 million litres per annum by about 40%.

Plants at Punjab’s Ludhiana, Haryana’s Panipat and Cheyyar in Tamil Nadu were commissioned last week. The company aims for rapid distribution expansion to over 6,000 towns by end-FY25. This will be the fastest and widest pan-India launch by any paint brand, the management said last week. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Skipper Limited, the manufacturer of power transmission and distribution structures, said it has secured an order worth ₹737 crore from Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) for design, supply and construction of a cutting-edge 765 kV transmission line for the central PSU, on Sunday, Februray 25. The company’s director Sharan Bansal highlighted the substantial boost to Skipper’s order book in the transmission and distribution landscape, with the year-to-date order intake exceeding ₹3,900 crore. “The orders from PGCIL have notably bolstered our order book in the transmission and distribution (T&D) landscape,” said Bansal, as per PTI.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were in the red on Monday, taking cues from mixed Asian markets.

At 10 am, Sensex was down 310.32 points, or 0.42%, at 72,832.48 and Nifty was down 92.90 points, or 0.42%, at 22,119.80.

Sensex Today Live : Spending on discretionary items—such as durable goods and consumer services—has risen sharply over the past decade or so, even as the share of food in rural Indians’ household budgets slid below the 50% mark for the first time in 2022-23, the results of a long-awaited household consumption survey revealed on Saturday.

The survey, conducted by the statistics ministry’s National Sample Survey Office, lays out India’s spending patterns for the first time since 2011-12.

The average per capita consumer spending in urban areas increased to an estimated ₹6,459 in 2022-23, from ₹2,630 in 2011-12, the survey said. In rural India, this rose to an estimated ₹3,773 from ₹1,430 during the same period. In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the growth was 40% in rural parts and 33.5% in urban parts. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Paytm share price were locked at 5% upper circuit on Monday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to examine Paytm’s request to become a third-party application provider for unified payments interface (UPI) payments.

The shares of One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, were up 5% at ₹427.95 apiece on the BSE.

“NPCI has been advised by the RBI to examine the request of One97 Communication (OCL) to become a third-party application provider (TPAP) for UPI channel for continued UPI operation of the Paytm app, as per the norms,” RBI said in its statement.

Sensex Today Live : Bank Nifty has witnessed profit booking led by PSU banking stocks, but private index pivotal led the support 46,400 levels to close flat to negative for the day.

On the higher side 47,600 will act as resistance and on the downside support is placed at 46,400 being the hourly averages crossover.

RSI is trending above the average line and we expect the momentum to continue to test the higher band over the next few days.

Bank Nifty highest call OI is at 47,000 levels while on the downside put OI is at 46,500 levels for the monthly expiry.

Sensex Today Live : Nifty-50 scaled a new all time high and witnessed minor profit booking to close flat to negative for the day trading in a narrow range.

We believe the volatility in individual sectors and stocks could be high with respect to the rollover movement and key support is placed at 21.900 levels.

The retest of hourly averages and consolidation indicates the continuation of the up move to 22,400 levels over the next few days.

Highest call OI is at with 22,500 strike while on the downside the highest put OI is at 22,000 for the monthly expiry.

Sensex Today Live : Across sectors, the Bank Nifty was down 0.12%, while the IT index, the biggest loser, was down 0.85%. 

Sensex Today Live : Across the broader market, while the Midcap segment was under some pressure, Smallcaps were performing better. More importantly, the volatility index, VIX had surged to nearly 5%.

Sensex Today Live : L&T, Cipla, Adani Enterprises, Dr. Reddy’s, and Adani Ports & SEZ, were the top gainers on the Nifty 50. 

Sensex Today Live : Asian Paints, Titan, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, and TCS, were the top drags on the Sensex.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices opened in the red on Monday, taking cues from Asian markets that were trending down.

At opening bell, Sensex was down 126.79 points, or 0.17%, at 73,016.01 and Nifty was down 59.10 points, or 0.27%, at 22,153.60.

Sensex Today Live : Indian benchmark indices were red at pre-open on Monday, taking cues from global markets that were trading mixed.

Sensex was down 131.23 points, or 0.18%, at 73,011.57 and Nifty was down 43.50 points, or 0.2%, at 22,169.20 during pre-open.

Sensex Today Live : The primary market is all set to remain in action next week amid favorable momentum observed in the secondary market, where the Nifty 50 achieved a record high last week.

Around six new initial public offerings (IPO), including three in mainboard and three small and medium enterprise (SME), are set to hit Dalal Street in the upcoming week. (Read the full story here.)

Vaishali Parekh, Vice President — Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher believes that the Nifty 50 index went past the crucial 22,000 level decisively in the previous week. The Prabhudas Lilladher expert went on to add that overall Indian stock market sentiment is positive. Bagadia advised a ‘buy on dips’ strategy till the 50-stock index is above the 21,800 mark. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : Shares of Natco Pharma Ltd, Fineotex Chemical Ltd, Gateway Distriparks Ltd, Suprajit Engineering Ltd, and Vibrant Global Capital Ltd will be in focus when the stock market opens on February 26 (Monday).

The Board of Directors of these companies have declared interim dividends for their eligible shareholders. (Read the details here.)

Sensex Today Live : The Indian stock market indices, Sensex and Nifty 50 are expected to open on a flat note on Monday tracking mixed global market cues.

The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a muted start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 22,221 level as compared to the Nifty futures’ previous close of 22,222.

On Friday, the domestic equity indices traded in a narrow range and ended flat, despite the Nifty 50 touching a new high of 22,297 level during the day.

“Nifty is currently placed at the previous broken resistance area of 22,200 levels. Having failed to continue with strong upmove at new highs, the market could shift into further consolidation or minor weakness in the next week,” said Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : The domestic equity market is expected to see a muted opening on Monday following mixed global market cues.

Asian markets traded mostly higher with Japan’s Nikkei hitting record highs, while the US stock market ended mixed on Friday.

Investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the key economic data releases that will provide further clues on the global interest rate outlook, with a US inflation reading taking centre stage.

“This week, the market might take a pause ahead of various global economic data releases. US would be reporting its Q4 GDP numbers along with Initial jobless claim, PCE data and Consumer Confidence for the month of February. However, the overall trend remains positive and thus we recommend investors to continue with the buy on dips strategy,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. (Read the full story here.)

Sensex Today Live : While Gift Nifty futures was trading marginally ahead of Friday’s Nifty close, volatility in the Asian markets indicated that the Indian benchmark indices could be muted on Monday, February 26.

At 7:45 am on Mondat, Gift Nifty futures, at 22,224.50, was ahead of Friday’s Nifty 50 close of 22,212.70

Asian shares were taking a breather near seven-month highs on Monday as investors awaited inflation data from the United States, Japan and Europe that will help refine expectations for future rate moves.

Oil edged lower after a weekly drop as traders awaited a fresh raft of clues about global crude demand and balances in March and beyond.

Brent dipped toward $82 a barrel after losing more than 2% last week, with US counterpart West Texas Intermediate above $76.

Spot gold was down 0.3% at $2,030.9 per ounce, as of 0100 GMT. U.S. gold futures edged 0.4% lower to $2,040.6 per ounce.

The dollar index was up 0.1%, making greenback-priced bullion less affordable for overseas buyers.