Stock Market Today: Nifty and Sensex set for a cautious start to Friday

• India’s Nifty and Sensex look to a mixed open on  Friday, having settled higher on Thursday.
• On Thursday, Nifty and Sensex rebounded firmly in tandem with the IT and auto sector stocks.
• India’s and US PMIs came in mixed, RBI Minutes read hawkish, dismiss premature policy pivot.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, are likely to open Friday on a cautious footing, having staged a solid comeback to close in the green on Thursday. The turnaround in Indian indices on Thursday was led by the impressive rebound in the IT and automobile sector stocks.

The risk rally in the Asian and European stock markets on tech-boost also aided the late rebound in the Indian indices. Encouraging earnings report from the US chipmaker Nvidia lifted the overall market sentiment, sending global equities firmly higher.

Mixed Indian and US preliminary business PMI data combined with a hawkish Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meeting Minutes are likely to keep Nifty and Sensex traders on edge. Further, Gift Nifty futures are printing small losses, indicating a subdued open on Nifty and Sensex indices.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 ended 0.74% higher on the day at 22,217.45 while the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 also added 0.74% on Thursday to settle at 73,158.24.

Stock market news

• On Thursday, the top gainers on Nifty were Coal India, Eicher Motors, HCL Tech, Bajaj Auto and ITC. Meanwhile, the top losers were IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, BPCL, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindustan Unilever.
• Data published by HSBC Bank showed on Thursday that India’s Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ (PMI) Index dropped from 56.9 in January to 56.7 in February. Meanwhile, the Services PMI rose to 62.0 in the same period vs. 61.8 previous. The Composite PMI stood at 61.5, as against the previous reading of 61.2.
• In the RBI Minutes, Governor Shaktikanta Das stated that ‘’at this juncture, monetary policy must remain vigilant and not assume that our job on the inflation front is over. We must remain committed to successfully navigating the ‘last mile’ of disinflation which can be sticky.”
• S&P Global Manufacturing PMI improved to 51.5 from 50.7 in February, while S&P Global Services PMI edged lower to 51.3 from 52.5.
• Speeches from Federal Reserve (Fed) policymakers continue to push back against expectations of early interest rate cuts.
• Jefferies expects the Indian stock market to hit $10 trillion by 2030.
• Among the corporate news, Grasim Industries Limited, a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, unveiled Birla Opus, its new decorative paints brand, targeting ₹10,000 crore revenue within 3 years.
• Bharti Airtel introduced in-flight roaming plans for customers that will allow them to stay connected while on board a flight. 
• SpiceJet raised ₹316 crore, bringing the total funds raised to ₹1,060.
• The US stock markets rallied hard on Thursday, riding the AI optimism wave. US stock futures are trading 0.05% higher so far, at the press time.
• Nvidia released Q4 earnings after the close on Wednesday. Nvidia posted $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) vs. $4.64 expected while revenue stood at $22.10 billion vs. $20.62 billion expected. The AI pioneer said that it expected $24.0 billion in sales in the current quarter.
• The Fed Minutes stated on Wednesday, “most participants noted the risks of moving too quickly to ease the stance of policy and emphasized the importance of carefully assessing incoming data in judging whether inflation is moving down sustainably to 2 percent.” 
• Markets are currently pricing in just about a 30% chance that the Fed could begin easing rates in May, much lower than an over 80% chance a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. For the June meeting, the probability for a rate cut now stands at 70%, down from 77% seen a day ago.
• People’s Bank of China (PBoC) cut the five-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) by a record 25 bps from 4.20% to 3.95%. The PBOC rate cut failed to excite traders on Tuesday.
• All eyes now remain on the Fed’s Monetary Policy Report and Fedspeak in the day ahead.