The key equity indices came off day's high in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,650 mark. Auto, realty and oil & gas stocks advanced while PSU bank, IT and media stocks declined.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 499.04 points or 0.67% to 74,745.05. The Nifty 50 index added 143.15 points or 0.64% to 22,656.85.

The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 74,869.3 and 22,697.30, respectively in afternoon trade. Further, the Nifty Bank index also registered a fresh record high today at 48,716.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.58% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.30%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,971 shares rose and 1,846 shares fell. A total of 149 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India’s foreign exchange reserves increased from $2.951 billion to $645.583 billion for the week ended March 29, according to the latest RBI report. This is the sixth consecutive week of a jump in overall reserves.

For the week ended March 29, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased $2.354 billion to $570.618 billion.

Gold reserves increased $673 million to $52.16 billion during the week, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were down $73 million to $18.145 billion.

India’s reserve position with the IMF was also down $2 million to $4.66 billion in the reporting week, the apex bank data showed.

Gainers & Losers:

Eicher Motors (up 4.73%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 3.46%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.16%), SBI Life Insurance Company (up 2.82%) and Shriram Finance (up 2.21%) major Nifty gainers.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (down 1.75%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (down 1.64%), Nestle India (down 1.55%), Britannia Industries (down 0.48%) and Wipro (down 0.43%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Titan Company shed 0.04%. The company said that it has registered a revenue growth of 17% YoY for the quarter ended 31 March 2024. Titan added 86 stores during the quarter. The retail network presence stands at 3,035 stores..

Voltas surged 7.89% after the company announced that it has achieved the highest-ever sales of 2 million air conditioner (AC) units in the financial year 2023-24.

Tata Steel rose 0.70%. The steel major's India business reported 4.46% increase in crude steel production to 5.38 million tons in Q4 FY24 as compared with 5.15 million tons posted in Q4 FY23.

Godrej Consumer Product gained 1.93% after the company said that India organic business continued to deliver strong underlying volume growth at high-single digit with growth being broad-based across both home care and personal care.

Dr.Reddy's Laboratories rose 0.14%. The company said entered into a partnership agreement with Bayer to market and distribute a second brand of Vericiguat in India.

Bank of Baroda shed 0.11%. The public sector bank reported 12.80% rise in domestic advances to Rs 8,97,366 crore as on 31 March 2024 from Rs 7,95,560 crore as on 31 March 2023.

Strides Pharma shed 0.02%. The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted a current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) inspection at Strides Alathur’s formulations facility at Alathur in Chennai from 1 April 2024 to 5 April 2024.

Bandhan Bank tumbled 6.03%. The bank informed that its managing director & chief executive officer Chandra Shekhar Ghosh would retire from the services of the bank upon completion of his current tenure on 09 July 2024.

JSW Steel added 1.54% after its consolidated crude steel production grew 3% to 6.79 million metric tonnes (MMT) in Q4 FY24 as compared with 6.58 MMT recorded in Q4 FY23.

Global Markets:

European stocks traded higher while most of the Asian stocks advanced ahead of central bank decisions this week, with investors also awaiting inflation numbers from the U.S. and China.

The Bank of Korea, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Bank of Thailand and the central bank of the Philippines have their monetary policy meetings scheduled this week. All four banks are likely to hold their rates steady, as per reports.

US stocks regained ground after a stronger than expected jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 303,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its closely watched employment report on Friday. Data for February was revised slightly lower to show 270,000 jobs added instead of 275,000 as previously reported.