11 April 2024 – Amidst conflicting global signals ahead of US inflation data, metal, public sector undertakings (PSU) banks, and oil and gas companies led the way as the domestic equity benchmark indexes, the Sensex and the Nifty 50, concluded the session on a high note on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty 50 increased by 0.49% to 22,753.80, hitting an all-time high in intraday trading for the third day in a row, while the S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.47% to 75,038.15. Both blue-chip index closing highs broke previous records, with the Sensex breaching above 75,000 for the first time.
Regarding the overall market, the small-caps experienced a gain of around 0.73%. In contrast, the mid-caps, which increased by 1%, set a new closing high for the third time in five sessions. Inflation in March 2024 above forecasts, mostly because of increasing gasoline and housing costs, dashed expectations of a June interest rate decrease by the US Federal Reserve.
Conclusion
Lead economist at Emkay Global Financial Services, Madhavi Arora, says there are severe concerns about the Fed’s current plan to decrease interest rates three times in 2024. The story that the “bump is a blip” has been completely debunked by a third straight “hotter-than-expected” CPI announcement, which also brought market pricing down to less than two cuts.
