Stock Market News: Top Things to Know as Market Opens; Fed Sees 3 Rate Cuts in 2024

The Indian stock market ended on a flat note on March 20, 2024. At close, Sensex was up 89 points at 72,101.69 while Nifty added 21 points and ended the session at 21,839.10. Around 1,608 stocks advanced and 2,183 declined while 112 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectors, Auto, FMCG, Realty, oil & gas, and Power were up 0.5-1 percent each. Metal shed almost 1 percent.

GIFT Nifty

Trends on GIFT Nifty indicate a positive opening for Indian indices.

US Markets

World stocks jumped on Wednesday and the dollar snapped a winning streak, after the Federal Reserve indicated that it still expects to cut US interest rates three times this year despite projecting slightly slower progress on inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.03%. The S&P 500 added 0.89%. The Nasdaq Composite leapt 1.25%.

Asian Markets

Nikkei hit a fresh all-time high as Asia markets climbed after Federal Reserve maintained its forecast for three rate cuts while holding the Federal Funds rate at 5.25%-5.5%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.57%, hitting a new all time high. The Topix also set a new record and rose 1.41%. South Korea’s Kospi also climbed 1.52% to hit its highest level since April 2022, CNBC.com reported.

Also read: Domino’s, Subway supplier Chatha Foods IPO: Top Things to Know Before Subscribing to The Issue

Fed sees three rate cuts in 2024 but a more shallow easing path

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that recent high inflation readings had not changed the underlying “story” of slowly easing price pressures in the US as the central bank stayed on track for three interest rate cuts this year and affirmed that solid economic growth will continue.

The Fed also left interest rates unchanged and released new quarterly economic projections that showed officials now expect the economy to grow 2.1% this year, above what’s considered the US economy’s long-run potential and a substantial upgrade from the 1.4% growth seen as of December, according to a Reuters report.

Stocks in the news

• Rail Vikas Nigam: The company has emerged as the lowest bidder for an electric traction system project worth Rs 167.28 crore of SER HQ-Electrical/South Eastern Railway.
• Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals: The company has received a solar water pumping system order under the PM-KUSUM scheme for Haryana state.
• Jupiter Wagons: The firm has acquired Bonatrans India for Rs 271 crore and became the first rolling stock manufacturing company to have its wheel plant.
• Torrent Power: The company has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of a 100 percent equity stake in Solapur Transmission, the SPV (special purpose vehicle), from PFC Consulting. Solapur Transmission has to establish a transmission system for the evacuation of power from RE projects in Solapur (1500 MW) SEZ in Maharashtra.
• Prince Pipes and Fittings: The firm has signed an asset purchase agreement with Klaus Waren Fixtures for the acquisition of the brand Aquel and a plant in Bhuj, Gujarat, for Rs 55 crore. The acquisition will be funded through internal accruals and is structured in two phases.
• GE Power India: The firm has received purchase orders worth Rs 16.42 crore from Bharat Aluminium Company Limited and Nuclear Power Corporation of India.
• JSW Infrastructure: The company said the total cargo handled on a consolidated basis has crossed 100 MMT for the first time. This excludes acquisitions made by JSW Infrastructure in the current financial year and cargo handled on an O&M basis.
• Texmo Pipes and Products: The firm has acquired a 51 percent stake in Shree Venkatesh Industries. The acquisition cost is Rs 20.6 crore.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 2,599.19 crore. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought Rs 2,667.52 crore worth of stocks on March 20, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Stock under F&O ban on NSE

The NSE has added Tata Chemicals to the F&O ban list for March 21. It retained Balrampur Chini Mills, Biocon, Hindustan Copper, Indus Towers, Piramal Enterprises, RBL Bank, and Zee Entertainment Enterprises on the said list

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