Indices trade small losses; metal shares shine; VIX slides 2.83%

The key domestic indices traded with minor losses in the afternoon trade, as investors remain cautious due to uncertainty about U.S. tariff policies and their possible impact on inflation. The Nifty traded below the 22,900 level. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty 50 F&O series expiry today.

Metal, PSU Bank, and oil & gas shares advanced while Financial Services, Private Bank and bank shares declined.

At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slipped 250.30 points or 0.33% to 75,689.71. The Nifty 50 index shed 46.75 points or 0.20% to 22,886.15.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.54% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.93%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,476 shares rose and 1,337 shares fell. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, declined 2.83% to 15.06.

Gainers & Losers:

Shriram Finance (up 3.42%), NTPC (up 3.10%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.87%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (up 2.49%), and Hindalco Industries (up 2.12%) were the major Nifty gainers.

HDFC Bank (down 2.31%), Maruti Suzuki (down 2.27%), Tata Consumer Products (down 1.66%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.41%), and ITC (down 1.08%) were the major Nifty losers.

Mahindra & Mahindra added 2.87% after the firm has entered into strategic partnership with US-based Anduril Industries, a leader in autonomous systems, to co-develop cutting-edge security and surveillance technologies.

Politics:

Rekha Gupta will be sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Delhi today at Ramlila Maidan. The oath will be administered by Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and other dignitaries in attendance.

Gupta, who won from the Shalimar Bagh seat, began her political career in 1992 with ABVP at Delhi University and later served as the General Secretary of BJP Mahila Morcha in Delhi. She secured victory over three-time AAP MLA Bandana Kumari by 29,595 votes. Her selection as CM came 10 days after the BJP's landslide win in the Delhi Assembly elections, where the party secured 48 out of 70 seats, ending AAP's decade-long rule. The BJP has yet to announce its ministerial lineup.

Outgoing CM Atishi and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal have extended their best wishes. Rekha Gupta will be Delhi's fourth woman CM after Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dikshit, and Atishi.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) shed 0.30%. The company has signed a contract worth Rs 123.07 crore with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, for the refit of the Mauritius Coast Guard ship, CGS Barracuda.

Bharat Forge shed 0.42%. The company announced that its 100% subsidiary, Kalyani Strategic Systems (KSSL), has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with AM General, USA for the supply of made-in-India advanced artillery cannons to the United States.

ITCONS E-Solutions was locked in the upper circuit of 5% after the firm secured a new work order from Wipro to provide manpower services on a contractual basis for the period of one year.

Global Markets:

US Dow Jones index futures were down 101 points, suggesting a weak opening for US equities.

European markets traded higher on Thursday as investors monitor earnings reports from a raft of major European companies.

Asian stocks tumbled as investors weighed U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on autos, chips and pharmaceutical imports as well as the Federal Reserve potentially keeping rates higher for longer.

Trump, who said the duties could be implemented as soon as April 2, did not specify whether they will be targeted at imports from certain countries or be broad-based.

The minutes from the Fed's January meeting showed policymakers remained hesitant about lowering interest rates amid persistent inflation and economic uncertainty. Officials also discussed the possibility of pausing or slowing the balance-sheet runoff'known as quantitative tightening (QT)'until the ongoing debt-ceiling issue is resolved.

Trump announced plans to impose a 25% tariff on automobile, pharmaceutical, and semiconductor imports, a move that could escalate global trade tensions. These tariffs'ultimately shouldered by U.S. importers'have raised fears of further inflationary pressure in the short term.

The People's Bank of China held the 1-year loan prime rate unchanged at 3.1%, and the 5-year LPR at 3.6%. The one-year LPR influences corporate loans and most household loans in China, while the five-year LPR serves as a benchmark for mortgage rates.

Asian investors are eyeing several key data releases on Thursday, including Taiwan's export orders, Hong Kong's inflation figures.

Despite cautious signals from the Fed, U.S. indices managed mild gains on Wednesday. The S&P 500 inched up 0.2% to a record high of 6,144.09 points, while the NASDAQ Composite added 0.1%, closing at 20,057.25 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 0.2%, settling at 44,627.46 points.

The Fed minutes reiterated concerns about stubborn inflation and policy uncertainty, suggesting that rate cuts are unlikely in the near term.

Palantir Technologies tumbled more than 4% in after-hours trading, extending an 11% loss from Wednesday's session. Other defense stocks, including Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp, also saw mild aftermarket declines following reports that Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth had instructed Pentagon leaders to prepare for annual budget cuts of at least 8% over the next five years.

Fresh U.S. economic data released Wednesday showed a slowdown in housing starts for January, as both single-family and multifamily home construction pulled back. Housing starts slumped 9.8% month-over-month to an annualized 1.366 million, down from December's 10-month high of 1.515 million.

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