Stock Market Today: Nifty and Sensex brace for a positive open on Friday

• India’s Nifty and Sensex are set to open higher on Friday, tracking positive global stocks.
• Nifty and Sensex settled slightly higher on Thursday after losing over 1.0% a day before.
• US Core PCE inflation came in line with estimates, India’s GDP blewout with 8.4% YoY in Q3.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, eye a positive opening on Friday after outstanding India’s growth numbers.

Gift Nifty futures are up nearly 0.25% on the day so far, pointing to an upbeat start while traders could take the positive lead from Wall Street and Asian stock markets.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 closed 0.14% higher at 21,982.80 and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 gained 0.27% on the day to finish at 72,500.30.

Stock market news

• On Thursday, top gainers on Nifty were IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports. Meanwhile, the main losers were Apollo Hospitals, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and UPL.
• Shriram Finance will replace UPL in the Nifty 50 index from March 28.
• Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in India declined 13% to USD 32.03 billion in April-December 2023, according to the latest government data. 
• Brightcom Group tanked 7% after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) refused to lift restrictions on promoter.
• Reliance, Viacom 18 and Walt Disney announced a binding agreement to merge their business on Wednesday.
• India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 8.4% on an annual basis in the third quarter (October-December), as against a 7.6% in the previous quarter, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed Thursday.
• The US stock markets closed higher on Thursday after the key US Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index increased 0.4% for the month and 2.8% from a year ago, as expected.
• Markets are currently pricing in just about a 20% chance that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) could begin easing rates in May, much lower than an over 90% chance a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. For the June meeting, the probability for a rate cut now stands at about 62%, down from 70% seen a week ago.
• Attention now turns toward the US ISM Manufacturing PMI for fresh trading incentives.