Stock Market News: Top Things to Know Before Market Opens

The Indian stock market is expected to open in the red following weak Asian cues. On the other hand, US Markets closed higher led by Alphabet and Tesla. Trends on GIFT Nifty indicate a negative start for the Indian indices. The Indian stock market ended in the green on March 18, 2024. At close, Sensex was up 104 points at 72,748.42 while Nifty added 32 points and ended the session at 22,055.70. Around 2,009 stocks advanced and 1,930 declined while 117 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectors, capital goods, healthcare, auto, realty, metal, and media were up 0.5-3 percent, while IT and FMCG slipped 0.5-1.5 percent.

GIFT Nifty

Trends on GIFT Nifty indicate a negative start for the Indian indices.

Global Markets

US Markets

Wall Street’s main indexes closed higher on Monday, with megacap growth stocks such as Alphabet and Tesla supporting a rebound in technology-heavy Nasdaq while investors also waited anxiously for the US Federal Reserve’s meeting this week, according to a Reuters report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 75.66 points, or 0.20% , to 38,790.43. The S&P 500 gained 32.33 points, or 0.63%, to 5,149.42. The Nasdaq Composite gained 130.27 points, or 0.82%, to 16,103.45.

Asian Markets

Asia-Pacific markets fell Tuesday ahead of central bank monetary policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and the Reserve Bank of Australia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 opened 0.5% lower, still below the 40,000 level. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.8%, while the small-cap Kosdaq inched 0.4% down, according to a CNBC.com report.

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Stocks in the news

• Tata Consultancy Services: Tata Sons has offered to sell 2.34 crore shares of Tata Consultancy Services at Rs 4,001 per share through block deals to raise up to $1.1 billion, reported Bloomberg.
• Tata Steel: Tata Steel UK has decided to cease operations of the coke ovens at the Port Talbot plant in Wales after a deterioration of operational stability.
• Sonata Software: The company has signed a joint go-to-market agreement with Zones, LLC, a global provider of end-to-end IT solutions and cloud-managed services.
• Procter & Gamble Healthcare: The firm will expand its VMS portfolio and injectables production. It will stop manufacturing injectables at its Goa plant and instead use a contract manufacturer (CDMO) to improve the quality of its products.
• IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals: The company said the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) has completed the GMP audit of the company’s all 10 API manufacturing units at Barnala, Punjab, without any observation.
• HG Infra: Jodhpur Vidyut Vitran Nigam has issued letters of award to Stockwell Solar Services JV consortium with HG Infra Engineering for four projects of solar business worth Rs 1,026 crore.

FII and DII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 2,051.09 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought Rs 2,260.88 crore worth of stocks on March 18, provisional data from the NSE showed.

Stock under F&O ban on NSE

The NSE has added Balrampur Chini Mills to the F&O ban list for March 19, while retaining Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail, BHEL, Biocon, Hindustan Copper, Manappuram Finance, National Aluminium Company, Piramal Enterprises, RBL Bank, SAIL, Tata Chemicals and Zee Entertainment Enterprises

Disclaimer: The content of this blog post is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be interpreted as investment or trading advice. The author does not assure the accuracy or completeness of the information presented. Any decisions or actions taken based on the content of this blog post are undertaken at your own risk.