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Markets trade in red with volatility ahead of monthly F&O expiry
Apr-24-2025

Indian equity benchmarks made flat-to-negative start on Thursday amid mixed cues from Asian counterparts. Soon, markets turned volatile ahead of the monthly F&O expiry later in the day. Sensex and Nifty are trading lower in early deals amid selling at Realty, Telecom and TECK counters. Some cautiousness came as Finance Secretary Ajay Seth reportedly said the direct hit from tariffs introduced by Donald Trump’s administration on India could shave off between 0.2% and 0.5% from GDP growth. However, downside remained capped as Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra, in the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, said that Benchmark interest rate reduction will bolster private consumption and support a revival in private corporate investment.

On the global front, Asian markets are trading mixed after US President Donald Trump suggested he's willing to take a less confrontational approach to trade talks with China, predicting the current 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports will ‘come down substantially’. China also expressed willingness to resume trade talks, provided Washington halts its threats. Back home, insurance stocks are in focus as life insurers recorded a marginal 5.1 per cent increase in new business premium collection to Rs 3.97 lakh crore during the financial year ended March 2025. 

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 79902.89, down by 213.60 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 79866.24 and 80173.92. There were 17 stocks advancing against 13 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.14%, while Small cap index was up by 0.20%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Utilities up by 0.40%, PSU up by 0.35%, Healthcare up by 0.32%, Power up by 0.26% and Basic Materials up by 0.25%, while Realty down by 0.94%, Telecom down by 0.41%, TECK down by 0.33%, Consumer Discretionary down by 0.22% and Consumer Durables down by 0.18% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Indusind Bank up by 3.67%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.09%, Nestle up by 0.94%, Bajaj Finance up by 0.77% and Hindustan Unilever up by 0.74%. On the flip side, Bharti Airtel down by 1.45%, Eternal down by 1.32%, ICICI Bank down by 0.77%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.73% and HCL Technologies down by 0.55% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has relaxed norms to facilitate export through warehouses in 'Bharat Mart', a multimodal logistics network-based marketplace in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), that will provide Indian traders, exporters, and manufacturers access to the markets around the world. The RBI said banks may allow exporters to realise and repatriate full export value of goods exported to 'Bharat Mart' within nine months from the date of sale of the goods from the warehouse.

Further, banks have been asked to allow opening/hiring of a warehouse in 'Bharat Mart' by an Indian exporter with a valid importer exporter code without any pre-conditions, after verifying the reasonableness of the same. It also apply on remittances by the Indian exporter for initial as well as recurring expenses for setup and continuing business operations of its offices.

Recently, the commerce ministry data had showed that India's merchandise exports, after four months of decline, turned positive and grew marginally by 0.7 per cent to $41.97 billion in March 2025 as compared to $ 41.69 billion in March 2024. Besides, merchandise imports increased by 11.3 per cent to $63.51 billion in March 2025 as compared to $57.03 billion in March 2024. The trade deficit, or the gap between imports and exports, widened to $21.54 billion in March 2025. The trade deficit in February 2025 was $14.05 billion. In March 2024, it stood at $15.33 billion.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 24263.95, down by 65.00 points or 0.27% after trading in a range of 24245.25 and 24347.85. There were 24 stocks advancing against 26 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Indusind Bank up by 3.36%, Nestle up by 1.55%, Tech Mahindra up by 1.19%, Cipla up by 0.92% and SBI Life Insurance up by 0.71%. On the flip side, Tata Consumer Products down by 2.29%, Bharti Airtel down by 1.57%, Eternal down by 1.30%, ICICI Bank down by 0.86% and Shriram Finance down by 0.84% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 270.93 points or 1.24% to 21,801.69, Taiwan Weighted lost 101.2 points or 0.52% to 19,537.94, KOSPI dropped 11.52 points or 0.46% to 2,514.04 and Shanghai Composite was down by 3.38 points or 0.1% to 3,292.98. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 surged 202.64 points or 0.58% to 35,071.27, Jakarta Composite gained 23.38 points or 0.35% to 6,657.76 and Straits Times was up by 10.42 points or 0.27% to 3,842.74.
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