Banking Stocks In Focus As RBI Eases Liquidity Norms

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty advanced on Tuesday, marking their sixth straight day of rise helped by gains in banking and FMCG shares and foreign fund inflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 187.09 points or 0.24 per cent to settle at 79,595.59. During the day, it jumped 415.8 points or 0.52 per cent to 79,824.30. The NSE Nifty rose by 41.70 points or 0.17 per cent to 24,167.25. Barring IT and energy sectors, most indices ended in the green, with realty, FMCG, and banking emerging as the top gainers.

“Despite negative global cues related to Trump-Fed tensions, the national market has maintained its optimism. The RBI’s relaxed liquidity coverage ratio guidelines, which are anticipated to enhance credit growth, boosted the finance sector. Foreign inflows have remained consistent for the fourth consecutive day, driven by a weakening dollar and competitive valuations. Additionally, domestic macroeconomic conditions are improving, with declining inflation and rising expectations of further rate cuts by the RBI, which are likely to lower costs and stimulate demand. These factors are expected to support corporate earnings in FY26,” Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Investments Limited.

The BSE smallcap gauge jumped 0.82 per cent and midcap index went up by 0.81 per cent.

“A pause after a strong uptrend is normal. While strong domestic fundamentals continue to provide support, underperformance in the US markets is capping the upside momentum,” added Ajit Mishra, Sr V-P (research), Religare Broking Ltd. Among BSE sectoral indices, realty jumped 2.40 per cent, FMCG (1.87 per cent), consumer durables (1.43 per cent), healthcare (0.75 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.72 per cent) and bankex (0.61 per cent). BSE teck, BSE Focused IT, power, utilities, IT and telecommunication were the laggards. As many as 2,477 stocks advanced while 1,504 declined and 149 remained unchanged on the BSE. Since April 9, the BSE benchmark has jumped 5,748.44 points or 7.78 per cent, and the Nifty zoomed 1,768.1 points or 7.89 per cent.

From the Sensex pack, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Eternal, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were the major gainers.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank fell the most by 4.88 per cent after reports claimed that the bank has hired EY for forensic audit into Rs600 crore microfinance discrepancy. The bank after the market hours informed exchanges that it has not engaged EY for a forensic audit as reported in the news item but its Internal Audit Department (IAD) is conducting a review of the MFI business to examine certain concerns. Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs1,970.17 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. In Asian markets, Shanghai SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled higher while South Korea’s Kospi index and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 ended lower. European markets were trading on a mixed note. US markets ended significantly lower on Monday. Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.55 per cent, Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked 2.48 per cent and S&P 500 slumped 2.36 per cent. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.61 per cent to $67.33 a barrel. The BSE Sensex jumped 855.30 points or 1.09 per cent to settle above the 79,000 mark at 79,408.50 on Monday. The Nifty climbed 273.90 points or 1.15 per cent to close at 24,125.55.