The Indian stock market extended gains on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve left its key interest rates unchanged, although a growing number of policymakers indicated a rate hike later this year.
Sensex rose around 274 points to close at 77,928 while Nifty gained around 67 points to end the session at 24,317. Broader markets however ended the session in the deep red, with Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 indices falling up to 0.6%.
Here's how analysts read the market pulse
The Fed's decision to maintain the status quo on rates was largely anticipated, but hawkishness remained due to continued emphasis on inflation control, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments. He added that a sharp uptick in US bond yields signalled growing pressure for a possible rate hike in the near future, keeping global investors on edge, while renewed crude oil volatility amid West Asian tensions added to external uncertainty.
"As a result, domestic equities remained range-bound with sharp intraday swings, as investors weighed global headwinds against resilient domestic fundamentals. Nonetheless, strengthening FII inflows, a firmer rupee, and encouraging Q1FY27 supported sentiment, prompting investors to treat dips as selective buying opportunities," according to the analyst.
US stocks
U.S. stocks gained on Thursday as Microsoft's stellar forecasts soothed concerns about massive AI spending by companies, while investors also parsed fresh GDP and inflation data a day after the Federal Reserve's rate decision.
Microsoft jumped around 15% after the company forecast current-quarter sales and cloud growth above expectations, capital expenditure below estimates and said it expects to keep generating cash through its fiscal 2027 that just began.
Investors have been spooked by rising AI costs at big technology firms even as they report strong earnings. Negative cash-flow reports from Alphabet and Tesla last week sparked a bout of selling in AI-linked stocks, with chip stocks also coming under pressure as investors questioned high valuations. The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 dropped 10% from its early June peak on Wednesday.
European markets
Europe's STOXX 600 benchmark rose 0.65%, while Britan's FTSE 100 was hovering close to a record high. The Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday.
Tech view
The Nifty remained largely range-bound as the index failed to give a clear directional move, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. He noted that index has been sustaining above the critical 50 EMA on the daily timeframe.
"Besides, the RSI is in a bullish crossover and continues to trend higher, supported by a rising trendline. Sentiment is likely to remain positive in the short term, with the potential to rise towards 24,500. On the lower end, immediate support is placed at 24,200, below which the index might lose its current momentum," the analyst further said..
Most active stocks in terms of turnover
HDFC Bank (Rs 2,692 crore), Infosys (Rs 2,655 crore), Kalyan Jewellers (Rs 2,083 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 2,023 crore), Redington (Rs 1,798 crore), M&M (Rs 1,587 crore) and RIL (Rs 1,569 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.
Most active stocks in volume terms
Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 23.04 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 11.62 crore), IRB Infra Dev (Traded shares: 7.86 crore), JP Power (Traded shares: 6.89 crore), Yes Bank (Traded shares: 5.63 crore), Redington (Traded shares: 5.61 crore) and Sagility India (Traded shares: 5.48 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.
Stocks showing buying interest
Balkrishna Industries, Redington, Sona BLW Precision, LT Foods, Exide Industries, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Hero MotoCorp were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.
52-week high
Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Redington, Sona BLW Precision, Exide Industries, TVS Motor, Star Health, RBL Bank and CreditAccess Grameen.
Stocks seeing selling pressure
Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Phillips Carbon, KPIT Tech, Hexaware Technology, Prime Focus, City Union Bank, Deepak Fertilisers and Premier Energies.
52-week low
Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included IndiaMART, Syngene, Inox Wind and Tega Industries.
Sentiment meter favours bears
Out of the 3,419 stocks that traded on the NSE on July 30, Thursday, 1,326 stocks witnessed advances, 1,973 saw declines while 120 stocks remained unchanged.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
