Ahead of Market: 10 things that will decide stock market action on Thursday

The Indian stock market extended its downturn for the third consecutive session, with Sensex closing with marginal losses but Nifty ending the session deeper in the red on Wednesday as surging bond yields kept investors on edge.

Sensex lost nearly 49 points to close 72,480 while Nifty 50 lost around 96 points to end the session at 22,620. Broader markets, meanwhile, moved into the green, with Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rising up to 0.3%.

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Here's how analysts read the market pulse

The relief rally seen early during the session today lost its steam with profit booking at the higher levels, followed by a rebound in oil prices, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments. The elevated global bond yields continue to remain a key overhang, limiting the scope for sustained risk-taking, he added.

Large-cap stocks, particularly in the banking and IT sectors, gained momentum as investors gravitated towards relatively attractive valuations and a higher margin of safety amid prevailing macro uncertainties, the analyst noted. “The overall market tone remains cautious; investors continue to monitor the trajectory of crude oil prices, bond yields, inflation expectations, and the potential implications for global monetary policy. Consequently, market participants are likely to remain selective, favouring fundamentally strong businesses with resilient earnings profiles until there is greater clarity on the macroeconomic outlook,” he added.

US stocks

Wall Street's main indexes gained on Wednesday, as a softer-than-anticipated inflation reading buoyed hopes that the Federal Reserve might not hike rates as soon as next month.

A Commerce Department report showed the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index stood at 3.4% on an annual basis in August against estimates of 3.7%, per economists polled by Reuters.

Separately, second-quarter GDP data showed that the US economy grew at a solid clip, driven by robust consumer spending and business investment related to the buildout of AI infrastructure.

European markets

Europe's pan-regional STOXX 600 was down 0.07%, coming off opening highs and setting the index for a monthly loss of around 2%. It is down 0.6% for the quarter.

Yields on 10-year German and French government bonds hit 17-year and 18-year highs this week and were set for rises of about 26 bps and 63 bps, respectively, for the month.

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Most active stocks in terms of turnover

HDFC Bank (Rs 2,808 crore), Sun TV (Rs 2,155 crore), BSE (Rs 1,987 crore), RIL (Rs 1,947 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 1,867 crore), Apollo Hospital (Rs 1,730 crore), and Bharti Airtel (Rs 1,423 crore) were among the most active stocks on NSE in value terms. Higher activity in a counter in value terms can help identify the counters with the highest trading turnovers in the day.

Most active stocks in volume terms

Vodafone Idea (Traded shares: 64 crore), Yes Bank (Traded shares: 9.4 crore), Ircon International (Traded shares: 7.66 crore), Ola Electric (Traded shares: 5.75 crore), Rites (Traded shares: 5 crore), Suzlon Energy (Traded shares: 4.7 crore) and HDFC Bank (Traded shares: 3.93 crore) were among the most actively traded stocks in volume terms on NSE.

Stocks showing buying interest

Ircon International, Sun TV, Rites, Schloss Bangalore, Aegis Logistics, Commercial Engineering and Solar Industries were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants.

52-week high

Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Sun TV, Schloss Bangalore, Syrma SGS Technologies and Tega Industries.

Stocks seeing selling pressure

Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospital, Max Healthcare, Aster DM Health, Graphite India, Vodafone Idea and Welspun Corp.

52-week low

Among the ones which hit their 52-week lows on NSE included Fortis Healthcare, United Breweries, Tata Elxsi, Havells India, Tata Consumer, Voltas and ONGC.

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Sentiment meter favours bulls

Out of the 3,679 stocks that traded on the NSE on September 30, Wednesday, 1,740 stocks witnessed advances, 1,813 stocks saw declines while 132 stocks remained unchanged.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimershere