Nifty, Sensex trade weakly as global optimism fades

• India's Nifty and Sensex post small gains as markets turn cautious on Friday.
• On Thursday, the Nifty and the Sensex rebounded strongly in tandem with stocks in the IT and automobile sectors.
• The Indian and US PMI indices were mixed and the Reserve Bank of India's minutes were hawkish, ruling out a premature shift in monetary policy.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India's main benchmark indices, maintain small gains on Friday, opening marginally higher after Thursday's strong recovery. Mixed trading in Asian and European stock markets keeps the rise in Indian indices limited.

Thursday's turnaround in Indian indices was led by the impressive rebound in IT and automobile stocks. US chipmaker Nvidia's encouraging earnings report lifted overall market sentiment, sending global stocks firmly higher.

Nifty and Sensex traders weighed preliminary Indian and US business PMI data and minutes of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) February meeting.

At the time of writing, the Nifty 50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Sensex 30 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) were up 0.10% on the day at 22,240.05 and 73,215 respectively.

Stock market news

• The Nifty and Sensex are buoyed by gains in financial and pharma stocks.
• Early on Friday, the top gainers on the Nifty were Cipla, Dr. Reddys, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Life Seguro and Titan. Meanwhile, the top losers are Maruti, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Asian Paints and HCL Tech.
• Data released by HSBC bank on Thursday showed that the Indian manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell from 56.9 in January to 56.7 in February. For its part, the services PMI rose to 62.0 in the same period, compared to 61.8 previously. The composite PMI stood at 61.5, up from 61.2 previously.
• In the RBI Minutes, Governor Shaktikanta Das stated that “at this juncture, monetary policy must remain vigilant and not assume that our work on the inflation front is over. We must remain committed to successfully navigate the 'last mile'.” of disinflation, which can be sticky.”
• The S&P Global Manufacturing PMI improved to 51.5 from 50.7 in February, while the S&P Global Services PMI fell to 51.3 from 52.5.
• The speeches of policy makers at the Federal Reserve (Fed) continue to dampen expectations of a quick drop in interest rates.
• Jefferies forecasts the Indian stock market to reach $10 trillion by 2030.
• Among the corporate news, the shares of Vodafone Idea stand out, which advance almost 9%.
• Bharti Airtel has introduced in-flight roaming plans for customers that will allow them to stay connected while on board a flight.
• SpiceJet raised Rs 316 million, taking the total funds raised to Rs 1.06 billion.
• US stock markets rose sharply on Thursday, riding the wave of AI optimism. At the time of writing, US stock futures were trading 0.05% higher.
• Nvidia released its fourth-quarter earnings after the close on Wednesday. Nvidia reported earnings per share (EPS) of $5.16, versus $4.64 expected, while revenue stood at $22.1 billion, versus $20,620 expected. The AI ​​pioneer said he expected sales of $24 billion in the current quarter.
• According to Wednesday's Fed minutes, “most participants noted the risks of moving too quickly to soften policy stance and stressed the importance of carefully evaluating incoming data to judge whether inflation is moving toward.” down sustainably to 2%.”
• Markets are currently pricing in only about a 30% chance that the Fed could begin easing rates in May, much lower than a more than 80% chance a month ago, according to the CME Group's FedWatch Tool. . For the June meeting, the probability of a rate cut now stands at 70%, up from 77% a day ago.
• The People's Bank of China (PBoC) cut the 5-year Lending Prime Rate (LPR) by a record level of 25 basis points, from 4.20% to 3.95%. The PBoC rate cut did not excite traders on Tuesday.
• All eyes are now focused on today's Fed statements.