The headline equity benchmarks traded with limited losses in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded below the 22,450 mark after the day's high of 22,619 in early trade. Oil & gas shares declined after advancing in the past nine trading session. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 11:27 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 18.48 points or 0.02% to 73,868.53. The Nifty 50 index declined 26.20 points or 0.12% to 22,408.45.

The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 74,501.73 and 22,619, respectively in early trade.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.02% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.31%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,189 shares rose and 1,460 shares fell. A total of 134 shares were unchanged.

The RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kicked off its 3-day meeting deliberating interest rates and analysing the state of the economy on April 3 and will end on April 5. While the RBI is widely expected to keep rates on hold, any signals on inflation and economic growth will be closely watched, as per reports.

Economy:

The HSBC India Services Purchasing Managers' Index , compiled by S&P Global, rose to 61.2 last month from February's 60.6, pointed to one of the strongest growth rates seen in over 13-and-a-half years. The upturn was largely attributed to healthy demand conditions, efficiency gains and positive sales developments.

Ines Lam, Economist at HSBC, said, “India’s services PMI rose in March, following a small dip in February, on the back of strong demand that spurred sales and business activity. Service providers increased hiring at the fastest pace since August 2023 in order to expand production capacity. Input costs rose at a faster rate, yet service providers were able to broadly maintain margins by charging higher output prices.”

The HSBC India Composite PMI Output Index increased to 61.8 in March from 60.6 in February, highlighting the second-strongest upturn in over 13-and-ahalf years (behind July 2023).

IPO Update:

The initial public offer (IPO) of Bharti Hexacom received 1,84,21,338 bids for shares as against 4,12,50,000 shares on offer, according to stock exchange data at 11.22 IST on Thursday (4 April 2024). The issue was subscribed 0.45 times.

The issue opened for bidding on Wednesday (3 April 2024) and it will close on Friday (5 April 2024). The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 542 to 570 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 26 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index declined 1.21% 11,512.95. The index jumped 6.77% in the past nine trading sessions.

Oil India (down 3.17%), Petronet LNG (down 1.79%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (down 1.65%), Indian Oil Corporation (down 1.47%), GAIL (India) (down 1.37%), Reliance Industries (down 1.24%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (down 1.12%), Mahanagar Gas (down 1.01%), Indraprastha Gas (down 0.85%) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (down 0.77%) edged lower.

On the other hand, Aegis Logistics (up 1%) Adani Total Gas (up 0.9%) and Gujarat State Petronet (up 0.75%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

KEC International zoomed 13.04% after the civil construction company secured new orders worth Rs 816 crore across its various businesses.

Avenue Supermarts (DMart) rallied 3.63% after the company announced that the total number of DMart stores as of 31 March 2024 stood at 365.

AU Small Finance Bank jumped 4.58% after the bank reported 26% increase in total deposits to Rs 87,182 crore as on 31 March 2024 as against Rs 69,365 crore as on 31 March 2023.

RBL Bank rose 1.17% after the bank’s total deposits jumped 22% to Rs 103,454 crore as on 31 March 2024 from Rs 84,887 crore recorded in 31 March 2023.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded higher on Thursday taking some positive cues from a mildly stronger overnight close on Wall Street. Markets in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan are closed for a public holiday.

U.S. stocks closed mixed on Wednesday as investors digest comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Powell said it would take a while for policymakers to evaluate the current state of inflation, keeping the timing of potential interest rate cuts uncertain.