Stock market today: Nifty, Sensex see muted starts, ICICI, Kotak, Axis bank gain lead

Both indices, Sensex and Nifty dipped marginally and were trading in red, as markets opened today. Nifty was trading at 24,300.40, down by 0.19%, while Sensex dipped by around 74 points to trade at 79,575.50, as of 9:40 am on August 13th, 2024.

Apollo Hospitals, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank and Axis Bank gaines early advantage during trade early morning, while HDFC Bank, BPCL, Shri Ram Finance, Asian Paints and Divis Labs were amidst the leading laggards. Most broad market indices opened the day in red, with most mid cap and small cap indices inching up in green, ahead of frontline indices. Amidst sectoral indices, bank, auto, financial services, media and metal were trading in red, while pharma, PSU, realty and healthcare indices were trading in green.

Aditya Gaggar, director of Progressive Shares noted that "after swinging on either sides, index settled 12th August trade marginally lower at 24,317. After testing the higher end of consolidation, the Index has formed a Long Legged DOJI candlestick pattern. A firm close above the 24,450-24,470 zone is a must to resume its uptrend while the lower side seems to be protected at 24,200. The range of BankNifty is intact i.e. 49,730-50,730 and awaiting a breakout for a clear picture. Selected IT counters have gained momentum indicating a resumption of an uptrend (Infosys). With a bullish engulfing candlestick pattern, the metal sector reversed from its long trendline support suggesting a trend reversal (NMDC, Welcorp). After a stellar rally, some profit-booking corrections can be anticipated in the pharma segment. From the FMCG sector, one should keep an eye on the sugar counters (Avadh Sugar)".

With CPI numbers coming in yesterday, retail inflation dipped to a 5-year low, to 3.5% in July 2024. Says Suman Chowdhury, Executive Director and Chief Economist Acuité Ratings & Research, “given the very strong base effect at play, the headline CPI inflation has suddenly dropped to 3.5% YoY from 5.1% in July’24. While this print is a 5 year low, it’s perhaps too early to celebrate such a low figure. Expectedly, the annualized food inflation has also started to taper with the onset of the monsoon from 9.4% in June to 5.4% in July on the back of a precipitous fall in vegetable inflation to 6.8% from 29.3%. Clearly, these are also the impact of the base factor since sequential inflation remains significant in both overall food inflation and vegetable inflation at 2.8% and 14.1% respectively".

"One important takeaway is the rise of core inflation to 3.4% in July vs 3.1% in Jun'24 on the back of a rise in telecom tariffs and gold prices. In our opinion, core inflation has bottomed out and is likely to move higher towards 4.0% amidst strong economic activity", she continued.