Sensex salutes 'Operation Sindoor, jumps 809 pts from day's low; SMIDs gain

Stock market closing bell, Wednesday, May 7, 2025: Benchmark Indian equity indices BSE Sensex, and NSE Nifty, despite witnessing gyration during intra-day trades, managed to shrug off the uncertainty to end higher on Wednesday.  The market turbulence followed the Ministry of Defence’s announcement that the Indian armed forces had conducted precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir early Wednesday morning. These operations were carried out in retaliation for the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attacks, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians in Kashmir.

 

Despite the geopolitical tensions, midcap and smallcap stocks outperformed the broader market. On the sectoral front, auto, realty, consumer durables, financial services, and banking stocks witnessed renewed buying interest from investors. In contrast, FMCG, pharma, and healthcare stocks settled lower.

 

 

On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex closed at 80,746.78, up 105.71 points or 0.13 per cent from its previous close, and 809.3 points or 1.01 per cent higher from its intra-day low of 79,937.48.

 

Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Eternal (formerly Zomato), Adani Ports, and Tata Steel were the top gainers, ending higher by up to 5.05 per cent. On the flip side, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, ITC, Reliance Industries, and HCL Tech were among the top laggards, declining in the range of 0.77–3.53 per cent.

 

The NSE Nifty50 too managed to settle in green at 24,414.40, higher by 34.80 points or 0.14 per cent from its previous close, and 194.4 points or 0.80 per cent higher from its intra-day low of 24,220.

 

The market breadth fairly remained positive as 1,772 out of 2,902 traded stocks on the NSE ended higher, while 1,049 posted decline, and 81 remained unchanged.

SMIDs outperfoms

 

Among the broader markets, Nifty MidCap100, and Nifty SmallCap100 index settled higher by 1.59 per cent, and 1.38 per cent respectively.

 

From the Midcap basket, One 97 Communications (Paytm) led the gains among the Nifty Midcap100 constituent stocks, ending higher by 7.19 per cent, followed by BSE, with a 6.81 per cent rise. Bharat Forge, SRF, and Aditya Birla Fashion were among the other gainers that ended higher by over 4 per cent each.

 

Meanwhile, from the Smallcaps space, Welspun Living logged the highest demand, ending higher by 13.04 per cent. This was followed by Piramal Enterprises (7.93 per cent), IIFL Finance (7.45 per cent), PG Electroplast (6.28 per cent), and Kfin Technologies (5.98 per cent). 

Among the sectoral markets, Auto stocks were the outperformers as Nifty Auto index ended higher by 1.66 per cent led by Samvardhana Motherson International (5.19 per cent), and Tata Motors (5.18 per cent). This was followed by Consumer Durables (1.18 per cent), Realty (1.12), and Media indices (1.06 per cent).

 

Nifty FMCG (down 0.52 per cent), Nifty Pharma (down 0.33 per cent), and Nifty Healthcare (0.35) were the only three sectoral indices on the NSE that ended in red, while others managed to eke out gains of up to 0.98 per cent on Wednesday.

Choppiness to continue; traders eye US FOMC meeting

The measured market response, Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments, said, indicated that geopolitical risks were largely priced in and expectations of de-escalation are prevailing among investors. At the same time, the progress on the India–UK FTA further buoyed investor optimism, driving gains in key sectors such as textiles, automobiles, and information technology.

 

"Globally, investor sentiment has improved as the United States and China signal a willingness to resume trade negotiations. Meanwhile, China’s recent interest rate cut contributed to a broadly positive tone across Asian markets," said Nair.

 

Market focus, Nair believes, will shift to the FOMC meeting. Though a rate cut appears unlikely, FED comments will be keenly watched.

 

Meanwhile, Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities, expects the choppiness in the markets to continue. "While the mood will be of caution due to Indo-Pak war tension, markets could witness choppy sessions with stock-specific activity over the next few days,” said Tapse.

Technical view

Technically, after a weak open, the markets bounced back sharply from the day's lowest point. The current market texture, Shrikant Chouhan, head equity research, Kotak Securities, said, is non-directional; perhaps traders are waiting for either side breakout. On the higher side, Chouhan believes, 24,500 would be the immediate breakout level for traders. Above this level, the market could move up to 24,600–24,650.

 

"On the other side, a dismissal of 24,300 could accelerate the selling pressure. Below this level, the market could retest the level of 24,200. Further downside may also continue, which could drag the market down to 24,125–24,100," said Chouhan.

 

Meanwhile, Ajit Mishra – SVP, research, Religare Broking believes that "a breach below 24,100 for Nifty could lead to further downside towards 23,800. Until then, the index is expected to trade within the 24,100–24,600 range." In the current scenario, Mishra advises to adopt a cautious approach and avoid aggressive positions until the market stabilises."