Barometers hit fresh day's high; Nifty above 23,150

The domestic equity benchmarks extended gains and hit a fresh day's high in the afternoon trade, as investors waited for the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later today and the Union Budget this weekend. The Nifty marched above the 23,150 mark. Barring the Nifty FMCG index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green.

At 13:32 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rallied 613.63 points or 0.81% to 76,515.04. The Nifty 50 index advanced 202 points or 0.88% to 23,159.25.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 2.15% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rallied 2.64%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,914 shares rose and 972 shares fell. A total of 112 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Bajaj Auto (up 3.92%), Bharat Electronics (BEL) (up 3.23%), Tata Motors (up 3.12%), Shriram Finance (up 2.95%) and Wipro (up 2.57%) were the major Nifty gainers.

ITC Hotels (down 3.92%), Asian Paints (down 0.95%), Britannia Industries (down 0.67%), ITC (down 0.33%) and Tata Consumer Products (down 0.29%) were the major Nifty losers.

Bajaj Auto rallied 3.92% after the companys standalone net profit rose 3.27% to Rs 2,108.73 crore on a 5% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 13,142 crore in Q3 FY25 over Q3 FY24.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services shed 0.04%. The companys standalone net profit jumped 63% to Rs 899 crore on a 19% increase in total income to Rs 4144 crore in Q3 FY25 over Q3 FY24.

JSW Energy tumbled 7.33% after the companys consolidated net profit declined 32.2% to Rs 157.5 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 232.2 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue fell 5.6% YoY to Rs 2,400 crore during the quarter.

Colgate-Palmolive (India) added 1.31% after the company reported net profit declined 2.22% to Rs 322.78 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 330.11 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations grew by 4.74% year on year (YoY) to Rs 1,452.21 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.

VA TECH WABAG jumped 8.54% after the company said that it has secured an operation contract worth $14 million (approximately Rs 121 crore) from BAPCO Refining B.S.C (BAPCO).

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) jumped 5.22% after the company's consolidated net profit zoomed 123.34% to Rs 134.70 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 60.31 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations grew by 32.21% year on year (YoY) to Rs 7,277.09 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.

Global Markets:

The US Dow Jones index futures were currently down by 35 points, signaling a negative opening for US stocks today.

European markets traded mixed on Wednesday after global jitters over artificial intelligence tech rivalry between the U.S. and China.

Most Asian stocks advanced following the minutes from the Bank of Japans December meeting, which revealed that members discussed neutral interest rates and monetary policy actions. The BOJ has been debating how far borrowing costs should be raised as inflation remains above its 2% target while wage hikes broaden due to labor shortages.

Japan's central bank had hiked interest rates by 25 basis points to 0.5% in its meeting last week. This increase brings Japans policy rate to its highest level since 2008.

Markets in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and China are closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that inflation rose 0.2% in the December quarter and 2.4% annually.

On Monday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 surged 0.92% and 2.03%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, added 136.77 points, or 0.31%, to 44,850.35.

In the U.S., key stock indexes regained some of their losses overnight, following the sell-off caused by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's challenge to the U.S. AI sector.

All eyes were on Nvidia, which gained momentum to close nearly 9% higher. The chipmaker had previously lost 17%, or nearly $600 billion in market value, in the prior session, marking the largest one-day drop in value ever recorded for a U.S. company.

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