Market trade higher; financial services shares advance

The key equity benchmarks traded with substantial gains in early afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered above the 25,100 level. Financial services shares advanced after declining in the past trading session.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 559.45 points or 0.69% to 81,940.81. The Nifty 50 index added 154.35 points or 0.62% to 25,118.60.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.12% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index shed 0.08%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,037 shares rose and 1,868 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India`s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation rose to 1.84% in September as food items, especially vegetables, turned costlier, as per the government data released on Monday. The inflation was 1.31% in August. It was (-)0.07% in September last year.

Meanwhile, India�s forex reserves dropped by $3.709 billion to $701.176 billion for the week ended October 4, the RBI said on Friday. In the previous reporting week, the reserves had jumped by $12.588 billion to an all-time high of $704.885 billion.

The foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $3.511 billion to $612.643 billion, the data released on Friday showed.

Gold reserves decreased by $40 million to $65.756 billion during the week, the RBI said.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down by $123 million to $18.425 billion. India�s reserve position with the IMF was down by $35 million to $4.352 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.

Derivatives:

The NSE`s India VIX, a gauge of the market`s expectation of volatility over the near term, shed 0.73% to 13.12. The Nifty 31 October 2024 futures were trading at 25,243.15, at a premium of 124.55 points as compared with the spot at 25,118.60

The Nifty option chain for the 31 October 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 52 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 44.6 lakh contracts were seen at 25,000 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Financial Services index gained 1.03% to 23,856.80. The index shed 0.64% in the past trading session.

HDFC Bank (up 2%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 1.78%), Shriram Finance (up 1.76%), Power Finance Corporation (up 1.64%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 1.32%), ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company (up 1.12%), Multi Commodity Exchange of India (up 0.96%), ICICI Bank (up 0.9%), Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company (up 0.8%) and State Bank of India (up 0.65%) advanced.

On the other hand, Bajaj Finance (down 1%), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company (down 0.81%) and SBI Life Insurance Company (down 0.67%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight :

Avenue Supermarts (Dmart) tumbled 8.26%. The company reported a 5.77% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 659.58 crore in Q2 FY25 as compared with Rs 623.56 crore posted in Q2 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 14.41% to Rs 14,444.50 crore in Q2 FY25 as against Rs 12,624.37 crore recorded in Q2 FY24.

Gensol Engineering added 1.81% after the company received a contract from UAE�s leading sustainable and clean energy development company for constructing rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for aviation company in Dubai.

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