Indian equities flat following Fed’s hawkish pause; FMCG stocks surge. After the Fed left rates steady, consumer and pharma companies climbed on Thursday.
As of 10:29 a.m. IST, the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) rose 0.11% to 63,300.21, while the blue-chip Nifty 50 (.NSEI) was up 0.18% to 18,789.55.
Both benchmarks were within 1% of their highs. On Thursday, the midcap index (.NIFMDCP100) reached a record high, while the smallcap index (.NIFSMCP100) climbed 0.43% to a 52-week high.
“Not just the benchmarks, the smallcaps and midcaps have seen tremendous run-up in recent weeks,” said SMC Global Securities assistant vice president for retail equities research Saurabh Jain. “The markets are likely to take a pause, and a slight correction would only be healthy.”
Five of the 13 key sectoral indices fell, with a high-weightage IT index.NIFTYIT is down over 0.5%.
IT equities, which depend heavily on U.S. income, slumped as the Fed kept rates stable for the first time in 17 months but suggested the need for borrowing costs to rise.
FMCG stocks (.NIFTYFMCG) rose 0.6%.
SMC Global’s Jain attributed FMCG stock gains to rising rural demand and lower crude oil and soda ash prices.
11 of the 15 pharma constituents rose over 1%.
After JP Morgan gave Fortis Healthcare and Apollo Hospitals “overweight” ratings, their shares jumped over 3% and 2%, respectively.
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