Barometers trade near flatline; media shares rise

The headline equity benchmarks traded near the flatline with some tiny gains in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 23,050 mark after hitting the day's low of 22,992.20 in early trade. Media shares advanced after declining in past five consecutive trading sessions. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty 50 F&O series expiry today.

At 14:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 45.53 points or 0.06% to 76,219.61. The Nifty 50 index added 12.70 points or 0.06% to 23,057.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.18%, and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 0.27%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,971 shares rose and 1,905 shares fell. A total of 138 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

Indias retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to a five-month low of 4.31% in January 2025, mainly due to lower food prices, according to official data released on Wednesday. CPI-based retail inflation was 5.22% in December, and 5.1% in January 2024.

Indias industrial production growth, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) eased to 3.2% in December, down from a 6-month high of 5.2% in the previous month, according to data released by Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI). The slowdown was largely due to weaker manufacturing activity, which grew 3% in December compared to 5.5% in November.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Media index gained 0.75% to 1,548.55. The index slumped 6.87% in past five consecutive trading sessions.

Tips Music (up 4.15%), Hathway Cable & Datacom (up 1.9%), Network 18 Media & Investments (up 1.68%), Den Networks (up 0.99%), Zee Entertainment Enterprises (up 0.8%), Nazara Technologies (up 0.74%), PVR Inox (up 0.56%), Saregama India (up 0.27%) and Dish TV India (up 0.13%) advanced.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper was up 0.15% to 6.816 as compared with previous close 6.806.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 86.8900, compared with its close of 86.9500 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for the 5 April 2025 settlement rose 0.31% to Rs 85,746.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.29% to 107.71.

The United States 10-year bond yield declined 0.71% to 4.601.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2025 settlement lost 48 cents or 0.64% to $74.70 a barrel.

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