Equity benchmark indices bounced back to settle at their new lifetime highs on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the growth forecast for the current fiscal and kept policy rates unchanged, prompting heavy buying in banking and other rate-sensitive stocks.
The BSE Sensex jumped 303.91 points or 0.44 per cent to hit its new high of 69,825.60. The NSE Nifty50 also gained 68.25 points or 0.33 per cent to reach a fresh lifetime high of 20,969.40. Nifty Bank hits record high, top contributors HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank & Axis Bank up more than 1 per cent.
RBI kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 percent in its monetary policy citing strong GDP growth and easing inflation. RBI also raised the GDP growth expectation by 50bps to 7 per cent for FY24 and kept the inflation forecast unchanged at 5.4 per cent.
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“It is expected that the reversal in trend in the global market and FIIs started buying again with stronger participation of retail investors will keep the market spirits high. Benchmark indices hit record highs. Investors are optimistic about India’s strong economic growth and gives India an edge over China. Lower prices of crude oil are also benefiting India to control inflation,” said Arvinder Singh Nanda, Senior Vice President of Master Capital Services Ltd.
“At the same time, the recent election victory of BJP in three out of four states boosted investors’ confidence about political and policy stability, expecting more infrastructure investment from the government. We expect the sentiment of market will strengthen further. The markets will also keep track of US FOMC meet outcome scheduled next week,” Nanda added
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Top Stocks To Watch On 11 December:
Tata Motors
The automobile major on Sunday said it will hike the prices of its commercial vehicles by up to 3 per cent from 1 January 2024, to offset the residual impact of the past input costs. The hike will be applicable across the range of commercial vehicles, the company said in a statement.
Wipro
The IT services major said its chief growth officer Stephanie Trautman is stepping down and would be parting ways with the company effective from 31 December 2023. "With this strong foundation built over the past three years, we are now taking the next step in the CGO's evolution. Over the past few months, we have started integrating the Strategic Pursuits team, formerly under the CGO, into our Strategic Market Units (SMUs)," said CEO and Managing Director Thierry Delaporte.
Bank of India
The public sector lender said its qualified institutional placement (QIP) was oversubscribed 4.11 times. The bank aimed to raise Rs 4,500 crore through the QIP, with an issue size of Rs 2,250 crore and a green shoe option of Rs 2,250 crore.
Zomato
Japanese conglomerate Softbank divested a 1.1 per cent stake in the online food delivery platform for Rs 1,128 crore through open market transaction. SVF Growth (Singapore) Pte, an affiliate of Softbank, offloaded 9,35,69,368 shares amounting to a 1.08 per cent stake in Zomato, as per the block deal data available with the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The shares were sold at an average price of Rs 120.50 per share.
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Lloyds Metals and Energy
The company board of directors has approved an expansion of iron ore mining capacity up to 55 million tonnes per year, and the establishment of a 45 million tonnes per annum Banded Hematite Quartzite (BHQ) Beneficiation plant at Gadchiroli district.
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