Market at day's high; IT shares in demand

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with major gains in early-afternoon trade. The Nifty scaled above the 25,450 mark after hitting the days low of 25,094.55 in early trade. IT shares advanced after declining in the past trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 829.27 points or 1.01% to 83,326.37. The Nifty 50 index advanced 211.15 points or 0.84% to 25,461.25.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.33% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.44%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,274 shares rose and 1,547 shares fell. A total of 136 shares were unchanged.

Economy :

The HSBC India Services PMI survey, compiled by S&P Global, indicates strong sector performance, but total new business, international sales, and output have all increased at the slowest rates since late 2023.

Despite solid job creation and strengthening business confidence, the Services Business Activity Index fell from 60.9 in August to 57.7 in September, still indicating growth above the neutral mark of 50.0.

The slowdown in output growth, the lowest since November 2023, was influenced by intense competition, cost pressures, and shifts in consumer preferences toward online services. While new business intakes expanded sharply, their growth rate dropped to a ten-month low, and international sales growth weakened significantly, reflecting broader trends in private sector output.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 1.06% to 13.31. The Nifty 31 October 2024 futures were trading at 25,586.30, at a premium of 125.05 points as compared with the spot at 25,461.25.

The Nifty option chain for the 31 October 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 67.1 lakh contracts at the 27,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 43.3 lakh contracts were seen at 25,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index gained 1.80% to 42,512.55. The index fell 1.58% in the past trading session.

Infosys (up 2.73%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.99%), Coforge (up 1.83%), Wipro (up 1.81%), L&T Technology Services (up 1.35%), Tata Consultancy Services (up 1.24%), HCL Technologies (up 1.24%), LTIMindtree (up 1.23%) and Mphasis (up 0.37%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight :

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services dropped 4.04% after the companys overall disbursement for Q2 FY25 was Rs 13,160 crore, which is a YoY decline of 1% over previous year.

Sundaram-Clayton advanced 2.33% after the firm announced that its board has approved the opening of qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue of equity shares with the floor price of Rs 2,320.78 per share.

Aarti Drugs rose 1.92% after the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (UK MHRA) has granted a Certificate of GMP Compliance of a Manufacturer for its arm, Pinnacle Life Sciences manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh.

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