The key equity benchmarks traded in negative territory with moderate cuts in afternoon trade as investors awaited the RBI's monetary policy decision later in the week amid ongoing trade war concerns. The Nifty traded below the 23,600 level. Trading was volatile due to the weekly Nifty 50 F&O series expiry today.

Barring pharma index all the sectoral indices on the NSE were traded in red.

At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, declined 330.80 points or 0.42% to 77,940.48. The Nifty 50 index lost 100.85 points or 0.43% to 23,595.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.74% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.03%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,850 shares rose and 1,957 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

ITC Hotels (up 2.64%), Cipla (up 2.63%), HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 1.63%), Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) (up 1.45%) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 1.11%) were the major Nifty 50 gainers.

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) (down 2.33%), Shriram Finance (down 1.94%), Titan Company (down 1.92%), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) (down 1.75%) and Bharti Airtel (down 1.71%) were the major Nifty 50 losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Swiggy declined 5.43% after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 799.08 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with net loss of Rs 574.38 crore in Q3 FY24. However, revenue from operations jumped 30.98% to Rs 3993.06 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 3,048.69 crore in Q3 FY24

Sagility India hit an upper circuit of 5% after the company’s consolidated net profit surged 207.2% to Rs 216.91 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Rs 70.60 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 15.3% YoY to Rs 1,453.07 crore in Q3 FY25.

Azad Engineering gained 2.71% after the company signed pact with Rolls- Royce PLC, London- United Kingdom to produce civil aircraft engine components in India.

Cummins India rose 0.60%. after the company’s standalone net profit jumped 12.98% to Rs 514 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 454.92 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations was at Rs 3,041.42 crore in Q3 FY25, marking a growth of 21.56% as against Rs 2,501.81 crore reported in the same quarter last year.

Bharat Dynamics added 2.69%. The company reported 16.7% fall in net profit to Rs 122.53 crore on a 12.2% decline in net sales to Rs 535.46 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with Q3 FY24

Reliance Power rallied 6.94% after the company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 41.95 crore in Q3 FY25 as compared with net loss of Rs 1,136.75 crore in Q3 FY24. Net sales fell 4.7% YoY to Rs 1852.84 crore in Q3 FY25.

Aarti Pharmalabs jumped 5.09% after the company’s consolidated net profit jumped 40.2% to Rs 73.99 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 52.76 crore posted in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations grew 19.9% to Rs 537.78 crore in the quarter ended 31 December 2024.

Sula Vineyards slipped 3.50% after the company’s consolidated net profit fell 34.71% to Rs 28.06 crore in Q3 FY25 as against Rs 42.98 crore posted in Q3 FY24. However, revenue from operations (excluding excise duty) declined 1.42% year on year (YoY) to Rs 200.15 crore in the December 2024 quarter.

Global Market:

European market advanced as investors are awaiting more earnings reports and the latest monetary policy decision from the Bank of England.

Most of the Asian stocks advanced on Thursday, mirroring gains in US stocks and bonds. This positive movement comes despite a week marked by trade tensions, underwhelming tech earnings, and mixed US economic signals.

The yen strengthened against the dollar for a fourth consecutive day, fueled by remarks from Bank of Japan official Naoki Tamura, who suggested Japanese interest rates could reach 1% in the latter half of fiscal year 2025.

Market attention now turns to Friday's US jobs report and its potential impact on Federal Reserve policy.

US indices advanced on Wednesday, supported by lower Treasury yields after purchasing managers index data indicated a slowdown in the US economy, particularly within the manufacturing sector. The ISM Services PMI fell to 52.8 in January from 54.0 in December, missing expectations for a reading for 54.0. This data fueled speculation that a moderating US economy might encourage the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates, even with inflationary pressures stemming from trade tariffs. Separately, better-than-expected ADP nonfarm employment data unsettled markets due to its potential to foreshadow a robust nonfarm payrolls figure for January. Private payrolls increased by 183,000 during the month, according to data from payrolls processor ADP, above the expected 148,000 growth.

Apple Inc. saw a slight dip after reports surfaced of Chinese scrutiny of its App Store. Chipmakers, notably Nvidia, provided significant uplift to Wall Street, particularly following indications from Alphabet and its competitors of substantial increases in spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure in 2025. However, Alphabet shares fell over 7% due to weaker-than-anticipated cloud revenue, a segment closely linked to AI.

The NASDAQ Composite underperformed other major indices, closing with a 0.2% gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.4%.