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Markets continue to trade in fine fettle in late trade
Mar-05-2025

Indian bourses continued to trade higher in late afternoon trade after US Commerce Secretary indicated that the administration may ease some tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico hinting flexibility in trade negotiations. Moreover, the broader market experienced heavy buying after investors opted to buy stock at cheaper valuation following the recent sell-offs. Some jubilation came after President-designate of Federation of Indian Export Organizations stated that US tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada can be beneficial to Indian exporters in sectors such as agriculture, engineering, machine tools, garments, textiles, chemicals, and leather. On the global front, Asian equity markets were trading higher as China’s goal to grow by 5% in 2025 amid ongoing trade tensions with the US has raised expectation of additional stimulus measures. European equity markets were trading higher.   

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 73671.94, up by 682.01 points or 0.93% after trading in a range of 72894.05 and 73933.80. There were 26 stocks advancing against 4 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index up by 2.28%, while Small cap index was up by 2.28%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 3.91%, Metal up by 3.36%, Power up by 3.34%, PSU up by 2.76% and Telecom up by 2.68%, while there were no losers on BSE sectoral index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Adani Ports up by 4.89%, Tata Steel up by 4.41%, Power Grid Corporation up by 4.11%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.02% and NTPC up by 3.73%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 3.29%, Indusind Bank down by 1.56% and HDFC Bank down by 1.11% were the few losers.

Meanwhile, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) in its latest report has said that cement prices declined around 7 per cent year-on-year in April-January FY25, amid weak demand, and increasing competition due to large supply additions by leading companies. It said though prices of cement (a bag of 50 kg) have increased sequentially from November 2024 with construction activities picking up pace following the monsoon and festive season, they remained low year-on-year.

The report said while the prices are likely to improve in the seasonally stronger Q4, large capacity additions are likely to keep the overall pricing environment weak; FY25 is likely to witness a high single-digit decline, the highest in the past decade. It further said the volume ramp-up from some of the acquired capacities that were operating sub-optimally earlier would keep the prices under pressure over the near term. Consolidation continues in the cement sector, where big players such as UltraTech Cement, Adani Cement, Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat are acquiring small companies, chasing inorganic growth besides brownfield expansions. In 10MFY25, the cement industry saw around 45 million tonne of capacity changing hands across five deals, majority in the southern region. This has increased the share of the top five companies to around 60 per cent, up from around 55 per cent in FY24. 

Ind-Ra believes there is still scope for further consolidation in the cement sector in the near-to medium-term, given the presence of small-to-mid-sized companies and the continued race for market share. Moreover, overall performance of the cement industry is expected to remain subdued in FY25 despite a pickup in the current fourth quarter on account of a weaker first half. After the muted growth of 2-3 per cent y-o-y in 1HFY25, cement demand picked up in 3QFY25 and grew at a high single digit. However, the weak H1 restricted the demand growth in 9MFY25 to around 3.5 per cent y-o-y, the lowest in the past six years with only listed entities faring marginally better.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 22313.60, up by 230.95 points or 1.05% after trading in a range of 22067.80 and 22394.90. There were 45 stocks advancing against 5 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Adani Ports up by 5.02%, Tata Steel up by 4.38%, Power Grid Corporation up by 3.94%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 3.88% and NTPC up by 3.63%. On the flip side, Bajaj Finance down by 3.29%, Indusind Bank down by 1.55%, HDFC Bank down by 1.11%, Shriram Finance down by 0.29% and Grasim Industries down by 0.22% were the top losers.

All Asian markets are trading higher; Hang Seng advanced 652.44 points or 2.77% to 23,594.21, Jakarta Composite gained 147.45 points or 2.31% to 6,527.85, KOSPI increased 29.21 points or 1.14% to 2,558.13, Nikkei 225 surged 87.06 points or 0.23% to 37,418.24, Taiwan Weighted added 275.02 points or 1.2% to 22,871.90, Straits Times rose 10.5 points or 0.27% to 3,901.26 and Shanghai Composite strengthened 17.75 points or 0.53% to 3,341.96.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 increased 49.33 points or 0.56% to 8,808.33, France’s CAC rose 146.32 points or 1.82% to 8,194.24 and Germany’s DAX gained 633.9 points or 2.84% to 22,960.71.
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