The domestic equity benchmarks pared early losses and traded with decent gains in the in morning trade. The Nifty traded near the 22,450 mark. PSU bank shares advanced after declining in the past trading session.

At 10:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 185.02 points or 0.25% to 74,040.47. The Nifty 50 index added 44.35 points or 0.20% to 22,446.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.10% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.39%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,059 shares rose and 1,353 shares fell. A total of 187 shares were unchanged.

Volatility may zoom as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month April series to May series. The April 2024 F&O contracts will expire today, 25 April 2024.

Politics:

The second phase of voting will be held on April 26 in 89 constituencies spread across 13 states and Union territories. The BJP is looking to consolidate its grip on power as it aims for a historic third term while a band of opposition parties, including the Congress, has formed a united front called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc to deny PM Modi another victory. The elections will occur in 7 phases, from 19 April to 1 June. The Lok Sabha elections 2024 results will declared on 4 June.

Results Today :

Bajaj Finance (down 1.41%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.07%), Nestle India (up 1%), Tech Mahindra (up 0.20%), Vedanta (down 0.99%), ACC (up 28%), L&T Technology Services (up 0.21%), AAVAS Financiers (down 1.56%), Coromandel International (down 0.46%), Cyient (up 1.14%), Glenmark Life Sciences (up 0.10%), Himadri Speciality Chemical (up 0.79%), Laurus Labs (down 0.54%), Mphasis (down 0.12%), Olectra Greentech (up 1.36%), Schaeffler India (down 0.26%), Tanla Platforms (down 0.73%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 1.28%), UTI Asset Management Company (down 1.23%), and Zensar Technologies (down 0.65%) will announce their quarterly earnings later today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index gained 2.04% to 7,279.75. The index shed 0.23% in the past trading session.

Bank of Maharashtra (up 2.5%), Canara Bank (up 2.33%), Punjab & Sind Bank (up 2.14%), UCO Bank (up 2.11%), Indian Overseas Bank (up 1.98%), Bank of Baroda (up 1.81%), Central Bank of India (up 1.65%), State Bank of India (up 1.38%), Punjab National Bank (up 1.28%) and Indian Bank (up 1.14%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rose 0.91%. TCS has entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Through this multi-year tie-up, TCS will provide its customers with tools to create modern architectures, deliver business value using state-of-the-art cloud-native capabilities and drive modernization at scale.

LTIMindtree slipped 1.75% after the company said that its net profit fell 5.87% to Rs 1,100 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 1,169 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations declined 1.38% to Rs 8,892 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 9,016 crore in Q3 FY24.

Rites rose 1.66% after the company said that it has signed Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), Ministry of Power, to collaborate for project management consultancy for rail infra works.