The domestic equity benchmarks traded with moderate gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,700 level. Oil & gas, media and metal stocks advanced while pharma and auto stocks declined. Trading was volatile due to the expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 284.06 points or 0.37% to 74,958.05. The Nifty 50 index added 86.75 points or 0.38% to 22,729.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.95% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.48%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,853 shares rose and 1,886 shares fell. A total of 121 shares were unchanged.

Due to the observance of Ramadan Eid on 11 April 2024, the domestic market will be closed. Consequently, the Nifty weekly options expiry has been shifted to today.

Gainers & Losers:

Coal India (up 3.24%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) (up 2.33%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 2.40%) Hindalco Industries (up 1.55%) and Tech Mahindra (up 1.52%) major Nifty gainers.

Cipla (down 2.60%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.73%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 1.38%), Divi's Laboratories (down 1.10%) and SBI Life Insurance Company (down 0.70%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Gensol Engineering rose 0.24%.The company reported a robust order book of Rs 1,783 crore at the beginning of FY25.

Paisalo Digital rallied 4.18% after the company’s assets under management (AUM) grew by 32% to approximately Rs 4,622 crore as of 31 March 2024 as compared to Rs 3,492 crore as of 31 March 2023.

Shyam Metalics and Energy added 2.04% after the company established a new stainless steel hot rolled coils (HRC) facility at its existing plant in Sambalpur, Odisha as a part of its expansion plan.

One 97 Communications shed 1.06%. The company said that its associate entity, Paytm Payments Bank’s (PPBL) managing director and CEO (MD& CEO) Surinder Chawla has tendered his resignation on 8 April 2024, on account of personal reasons and to explore better career prospects.

Lemon Tree Hotels added 1.42% after the company announced their entry into Nepal with the opening of Lemon Tree Premier at Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu.

Global Markets:

European stocks traded higher while Asian stocks traded mixed on Wednesday as of Japan’s corporate inflation climbed in March and rate decisions are assessed from New Zealand and Thailand’s central banks.

South Korea’s markets are closed Wednesday, as the country heads to the polls to elect its next parliament. Japan’s corporate goods price index rose 0.8% in March from a year ago, accelerating from the revised 0.7% increase in February.

U.S. stock indexes ended nearly flat on Tuesday, pressured by financial-sector stocks as investors awaited a key inflation reading and braced for major banks to kick off earnings-reporting season later this week. The widely watched report on March's consumer-price index is due on Wednesday.