Stock Market Today: Nifty and Sensex set to kick off the week on a positive note

• India’s Nifty and Sensex are likely to start the week on the right footing on Monday.
• Nifty and Sensex settled over 1.60% higher on Friday, clinching fresh record highs.
• US Core PCE inflation came in line with estimates, India’s GDP blew out with 8.4% YoY in Q3.

The Sensex 30 and Nifty 50, India’s key benchmark indices, are eyeing a positive start to the week on Monday, taking cues from mostly higher Asian stocks and the advance in the Gift Nifty futures.

Both Indian indices ended Friday with strong gains, capitalizing on robust India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data and the global stocks rally.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex 30 gained nearly 1.65% on the day to settle just below fresh all-time highs of 22,353.30 and 73,819.21 respectively.

Stock market news

• It’s a holiday-shortened week for the Indian markets, as they will be closed, in observance of the Mahashivratri festival on Friday. Meanwhile, the main event risks for markets this week will be the US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony and the all-important US Nonfarm Payrolls data.
• The top performers on Nifty on Friday were L&T, JSW Steel, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel and Titan. Meanwhile, the top losers were Britannia, Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy, HCL Tech and Infosys.
• Shares of Auto, metal, power, bank and capital rose 1% to 3%.
• L&T commissions Green Hydrogen Plant at A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex in Hazira.
• L&T is awarded contracts worth INR13,368 crore for the supply of equipment to the Indian Air Force.
• Bharti Airtel deployed additional sites in Thrissur district to densify its network. 
• India’s manufacturing sector climbed to a five-month high of 56.9 in February.
• India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanded by 8.4% on an annual basis in the third quarter (October-December), as against 7.6% in the previous quarter, data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed Thursday.
• The US stock markets closed higher on Friday even as business activity in the US manufacturing sector contracted at an accelerating pace in February, with the ISM Manufacturing PMI dropping to 47.8 from 49.1 in January, missing the market expectation of 49.5 by a wide margin.
• On Thursday, 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 71%, up from roughly 60% seen a week ago.