Nifty has formed a bullish candle with a longer lower shadow, indicating support-based buying. It needs to maintain a hold above 18281 zones for upswing towards 18400 and 18442 levels. India VIX's declining volatility gives strength to bulls. Broader trading range is between 18000 and 18600 zones while an immediate trading range is between 18100 and 18500. The index can consolidate, but the structure is turning in favor of bulls. Resistance is seen at 18,500, and support is at 18,200. Traders should book profits on rallies and look for opportunities to buy on dips.

Low-cost, high-return mutual fund schemes are ideal for investors looking to minimize expenses and maximize their returns. The following five mutual funds have low expense ratios and significant returns, including the Quant Small Cap Fund, Quant Infrastructure Fund, Nippon India Small Cap Fund, HSBC Small Cap Fund, and Tata Small Cap Fund. The expense ratios range from 0.26% to 0.86%, and the trailing returns range from 5.12% to 66.25%, depending on the timeframe considered. All funds have a minimum investment requirement of Rs 5,000 and a minimum SIP investment of Rs 500 to Rs 1,000.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of the bulls. About 1,877 stocks gained, 1,616 declined, and 118 remained unchanged on the BSE.

Closing Bell: Sensex ends 99 pts higher; Nifty tops 18,300 on F&O expiry; Airtel, Adani Ent gain 3% each

Gold price plunged Rs 430 to Rs 60,250 per 10 gram in the national capital on Thursday amid weak global trends, according to HDFC Securities. The precious metal had ended at Rs 60,680 per 10 gram in the previous trade.

In the year 2023, the Nifty benchmark index has displayed minimal growth, with only a 1% increase. From the peak of 52-week high, both Nifty and Nifty500 indices have witnessed a decline of over 3%. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that nine stocks from the Nifty500 index have dropped by more than 50% from their highest points in the past year. Therefore, if any of these stocks were to recover and reach their previous high levels, they could potentially rise by over 100% (Data Source: ACE Equity).Nonetheless, it is important to exercise caution when considering these expectations of share price recovery, as most of these stocks exhibit more weaknesses than strengths, as indicated by Trendlyne data.

Siddhartha Mohanty, the chairperson of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), said that the insurer's investment policy is in place and that any specific stock movements won't harm the company. Mohanty's comments were in relation to LIC's losses on investments in Adani Group stocks after a US-based report highlighted concerns over corporate governance at the conglomerate. LIC has since witnessed an upturn in the value of their investments. The insurer's board has recently recommended a dividend payout of INR3 ($0.04) a share for FY20.

HDFC Bank remains one of the preferred picks of Motilal Oswal and the brokerage maintains a 'Buy' rating on the stock with a price target of Rs 1,950. A brokerage note highlighted that the bank is getting bigger, stronger and faster.

Vedanta, owned by Anil Agarwal, has pledged almost all of its holdings in Hindustan Zinc as collateral for loans. The company created a pledge on 13.94 crore shares or 3.3% of the total equity. This was the third instance during this financial year when the multinational mining company pledged its shares in Hindustan Zinc. Vedanta and Hindustan Zinc have reported a drop in their January-March quarter net profit. While Vedanta shares were trading higher, Hindustan Zinc shares were trading lower on the NSE.

Women investors often prioritize capital preservation and risk avoidance, resulting in a need for well-crafted financial planning strategies tailored to their specific needs. Comprehensive financial planning enabling women investors to optimize their wealth growth while prioritizing wealth preservation and navigating different investment vehicles.

After the reopening of China, metal prices were expected to inch upward, however the slide continues. Is it because of fears of US recession or over optimism of the covid era is getting adjusted to normal. Stock Reports Plus, powered by Refinitiv, is a comprehensive research report that evaluates five key components of 4,000+ listed stocks - earnings, fundamentals, relative valuation, risk and price momentum to generate standardized scores.

The Indian sugar sector has gone through a transformation. From being just a provider of an essential commodity, to being the largest provider of ethanol. Some companies have shifted their focus and have gone through restructuring by hiving off their ethanol unit to focus on ethanol only. As the underlying macro changes sugar companies are making a comeback on the analyst list.

Trident, a textile fabric manufacturer, reported a 28.4% YoY drop in Q4FY23 net profit, at Rs 129.7 crore. Revenue from operations declined 15.9% YoY to Rs 1,573.2 crore due to lower revenue across its yarn, towel and bedsheets divisions. Trident’s paper and chemicals unit, however, grew by 22%. Its EBITDA for Q4FY23 slipped 20.5% YoY to Rs 268.4 crore. The company’s share price fell 9% to Rs 31.6 on the BSE.

HDFC Bank's merger with HDFC is set to take place in the next few weeks, resulting in a lower net interest margin (NIM) for the bank this year, according to analysts. The bank expects NIM to reduce from 4.1% to 3.7%-3.8% in 2023-24 due to the merger. However, Nomura stated that lower credit costs and increased operating leverage would compensate for the reduction in NIM. HDFC Bank's management is confident about maintaining a post-merger return on assets of 1.9% to 2.1%.

Phoenix Mills has broken out of a small descending channel and is still showing bullish signs with its position in a rising channel for the past three years, experts suggest. Since November 2020, the 50-week moving average has offered strong support for the company’s stock. Short-term traders could purchase shares for a possible 2-month target price of Rs 1,600, which is closer to its record high of Rs 1,620 from November 2022. The stock experienced a 4% decrease in one week but a 5% increase in one month with the 30, 50, and 200-day moving averages above the 5, 10, and 20-day metrics.

On the list is India’s largest private sector company, which a large number of times in the past has led the turnaround of markets. An insurance major which after many attempts to find a suitor has finally settled. These companies have come on the list because their scores have inched up and also their prices have moved up in the last one month. ET screener powered by Refinitiv’s Stock Report Plus applies different algorithms & filters to all BSE and NSE stocks, and lists down stocks which fulfill the various criteria as specified into the algorithms & filters.

India's Aerolloy Technologies, a subsidiary of PTC Industries, has been selected by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to supply cast components for aerospace applications. It represents the first time IAI has sourced such components from India. PTC Industries Chairman and Managing Director Sachin Agarwal said the move demonstrated the company's technological capabilities, and added that opportunities had arisen to export to the defence and aerospace sectors. Aerolloy Technologies makes materials for critical and super-critical applications in aerospace.

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) saw a 7% drop in its share price in Thursday's trading despite reporting a 17.16% increase in profit after tax (PAT) for the March quarter. GRSE's PAT increased to Rs 55.3 crore compared to Rs 47.2 crore a year ago, while revenue from operation rose by 10.68% to Rs 601.17 crore for the same period. Cmde Hari PR, IN (Retd) Chairman and MD of GRSE said the company had the "best ever" financial performance during FY 22-23, which was a credit to the team's resilience and ​resolve.

LIC's shares climbed almost 4% to Rs 615.6 in intra-day trading on the back of a standalone net profit of Rs 13,428 crore during the quarter ended March. This was 466% more than the same quarter last year. Despite its good performance, the insurer's net premium income fell 8% to Rs 1.31 lakh crore in the March quarter, compared with Rs 1.43 lakh crore the previous year. Income from investments rose marginally to Rs 67,846 crore for the January-March period versus Rs 67,498 crore the previous year, while the net commission rose 5% to Rs 8,428 crore.

At least 37 BSE-listed Indian companies have maintained their EBITDA margin over 15% in every quarter of FY23 and have seen their stock prices rise by over 50% in the past year, revealing eight small-cap multibaggers. These include Mold-Tek Technologies, with steady growth and operating margin expansion; Elecon Engineering Company, with a 25% ROCE and better earnings quality; and Nitta Gelatin India, boasting a global presence and relatively low valuation. The screener avoided financial stocks and firms with market caps under INR500 crore.

Shares of FSN E-commerce Ventures rose despite the Nykaa owner reporting a 71.83% YoY drop in March quarter profit after tax at INR2.4 crore ($320,000). While Goldman Sachs suggested there was "a continuing trade-off between growth and profitability," Kotak and Nuvama reiterated their buy rating. The two firms pointed to the company's continued stable gross merchandise value growth, with Nuvama noting that the "focus on a mix of profitability and stable growth over superlative growth is evident". Conversely, HDFC Securities maintained a reduce rating on the stock.

Shares of ITC have reached a new 52-week high, gaining 5% in five consecutive trading sessions and trading with high volume. The stock surpassed the price target of Rs 440 set by BoFA following the announcement of its Q4FY23 earnings, which reported a 23% YoY growth in consolidated net profit. Despite its ascent, the stock has had low volatility and traded with a 1-month beta of 0.43, according to Trendlyne data. Brokerage Nuvama has retained a ‘BUY’ on ITC with a SoTP-based target price of Rs 500.

Leading brokerage firms have given their recommendations on a range of Indian companies. Goldman Sachs has maintained a neutral rating on Nykaa due to concerns about profitability in the fashion segment. Macquarie has also maintained a neutral rating on Reliance Industries, stating that Jio earnings growth is set to lag Airtel India. Jefferies has a buy rating on Delhivery, anticipating medium-term e-commerce growth of around 15-20%. Meanwhile, CLSA has a buy rating on Hindalco, expecting low leverage and profitability growth, while UBS resumed its sell rating on Tata Motors due to concerns over its electric vehicle pipeline.

Indian Prime Minister Modi's influence on investors is evident in India's stock market performance. During his nine-year stint, India saw record inflows from both domestic and foreign investors. An analysis by ETMarkets of the last nine years' star performers found that 44 stocks from the Nifty500 index delivered over 1,000% returns in this period. The list includes Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, and Tanla Platforms. Stocks in the auto ancillary, capital goods, engineering, infrastructure, and chemicals sectors also benefited from the ruling government's policies. However, experts warn that global headwinds and upcoming general elections may create volatility in the markets.

Sensex drops 50 points, Nifty nears 18,250; Adani Transmission, Oil India fall 2% each; Powergrid, ITC, Bharti Airtel are some of the top movers in morning trade.

CLSA and Kotak have recommended buying shares, while Nuvama suggests holding them, after Hindalco Industries reported a 48% drop in its Q4FY23 standalone net profit to Rs 832 crore. The consolidated PAT fell 37% YoY to Rs 2,411 crore, while revenue rose 5% YoY to Rs 55,857 crore. Despite the fall, outlook and leverage remain low, CLSA noted in its report, while Kotak trimmed its EBITDA estimate by 2.3%/0.3% for FY2024/25E, despite optimism that the stock remains inexpensive at 5.4X EV/EBITDA FY2025E.

Agrochemicals maker PI Industries could give returns of up to 28% if it can break from a strong resistance zone, according to investment advisory Sharekhan, which has a 'buy' stance on the stock with a target price of INR4,200 ($57). Last week, senior vice-president of technical and derivatives research at Axis Securities, Rajesh Palviya, predicted the stock price could rise as much as 17% to INR4,000 if it can move above resistance levels. However, PI Industries has underperformed the 50-stock index year-to-date, rising just 0.12%.

Indiabulls Housing Finance Company and Delta Corp have been placed under a trade ban on 25 May due to the open interest on their stocks exceeding 95% of market-wide position limits (MWPL) for Future & Options contracts. The ban will only be lifted when the open interest falls below 80%. Traders in indices will not be affected. The MWPL for Indiabulls Housing stood at 81.1% on Wednesday while Delta’s MWPL stood at 92.8%. The broader Nifty50 index settled at 18,285.40, lower by 62.60 points or 0.34%.

The Indian market may stabilize on Thursday owing to mixed global cues. The Sensex index dropped more than 200 points and Nifty50 dropped below 18,300 on Wednesday due to rising volatility. The immediate trading range could be between zones of 18,150 to 18,400. A higher upper shadow with a long pin bar formation was observed, indicating pressure in higher zones. Engineers India, NBCC and KPIT Technologies are a few stocks that can be bought for short-term trading.

Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Motors, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, and Sun Pharma opened in the red, while Power Grid, ITC, Kotak Bank, Nestle, M&M, and HUL opened with gains.

In the Nifty500 pack, four stocks' prices crossed above their 200 DMAs (Daily Moving Averages) on May 24, according to stockedge.com's technical scan data. The 200-day DMA is used as a key indicator by traders for determining the overall trend in a particular stock. As long as the stock is priced above the 200-day SMA on the daily time frame, it is generally considered to be an overall uptrend. Take a look:

Global stock indices are predicted to end the year on higher ground than where they began, but many are set to be range-bound in the coming months, according to a survey of market strategists by Reuters. Recoveries from 2020's drubbing have been tempered by uncertainty over the end of central banks' interest rate hikes. Since recovering from March lows, only two-thirds of the 97 analysts surveyed expect narrow range trading. Among 104 experts predicting the primary drivers of stock markets, the most popular reasons were economic data and monetary policy.

Chipmaker Nvidia is ramping up production of its artificial intelligence (AI) chips to match strong demand, sending its stock up by 28% in after-hours trading. The increase added almost $300bn in market capitalisation, boosting Nvidia's stock market value to more than $960bn. The demand has also lifted the shares of Microsoft, Google, Advanced Micro Devices, C3.ai and Palantir Technologies. The surge follows NVIDIA's strong first-quarter results with second-quarter revenue forecasts over 50% more than Wall Street expectations.

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 48.5 points, or 0.26 per cent, lower at 18,337.50, signaling that Dalal Street was headed for negative start on Thursday. Here are some stocks which are expected to see some action in trade today.

Fitch put the country's "AAA" rating, its highest rank, on a negative watch in a precursor to a possible downgrade should lawmakers fail to raise the amount that the Treasury can borrow before it runs out of money, which could happen as soon as next week.

ET Now spoke to various experts and here's what they have to recommend for today's trading session. Kunal Bothra has a buy/sell recommendation on Tata Comm and Bajaj Finserv while Nooresh Merani has a buy/sell recommendation on ICICI Bank and Piramal Enterprises for today's trading session. Check out the targets and stoploss.

Asian shares fell to two-month lows on Thursday, and the US dollar rose as talks about raising the US debt ceiling remained inconclusive. With no resolution in sight, traders were wary of a possible US government default that could lead to detrimental impacts on the global economy. Credit ratings agencies also put the US on watch for a possible downgrade, thereby adding to the dampened investor sentiment. While Wall Street's main indexes closed lower overnight on debt-ceiling concerns, Nasdaq futures rose 1.4% higher after Nvidia's forecast for second-quarter revenue.

Equity markets ended lower on Wednesday, led by selling in metal and financial stocks. Analysts said that without clear cues from global markets, participants are hesitant to make big moves. However, several individual stocks outperformed, including Mahindra CIE Automotive, Dixon, and Elgi. Technical analyst Rohan Shah recommends buying all three stocks. Elgi is expected to continue upward momentum towards 625 levels in the short term and possibly hit 700 levels in the medium term. For Mahindra CIE Automotive, the support comes near 435 while the level of 540 is anticipated to act as resistance on the higher side. Dixon has broken out of the symmetrical triangle pattern with high volumes and is expected to do well going forward.

In the NSE list of stocks, five stocks with a market cap of over Rs 1000 crore are witnessing Golden Crossovers, according to stockedge.com's technical scan data. Golden Cross is an important technical indicator of bullishness. It occurs when the short-term moving average crosses over the major long-term moving average on the upside. These stocks' 50-day simple moving averages (SMA) crossed their 200-day SMAs on May 24.

Wall Street's main indexes closed lower on Wednesday amid worries about the lack of progress over raising the US debt ceiling ahead of a June 1 deadline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 255.59 points, or 0.77%, to 32,799.92, the S&P 500 lost 30.34 points, or 0.73%, to 4,115.24, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 76.08 points, or 0.61%, to 12,484.16. The CBOE Volatility Index, or "Wall Street's fear gauge", hovered around three-week highs, and Citgroup shares fell 3.1% after the bank scrapped plans to sell Banamex and will list it instead.

The stock price of this company has undergone a sharp decline over the past few weeks. Now the price is making an attempt to bounce back, after finding support near its demand zone (in red). The candle entering the demand zone has a long lower shadow, which suggests a rejection in price. The rejection is supported by a rise in volume.

Nvidia Corp has forecast its Q2 revenue to be more than 50% above expectations, crediting strong demand for its AI chips, which are used to power chatbots, among other services. The announcement sent shares in the listed semiconductor company, which is worth over $950bn, soaring 28%. The new popularity of AI platforms led CEO Jensen Huang to disclose that Nvidia began full production of its latest AI chips in last August, enabling it to partially avoid chip shortages for apps like chatbots; full production supplies absorbed the steep new demand seen in January.

Hindalco Industries posted a 48% fall in its standalone net profit at Rs 832 crore for the quarter ended March. Revenue from operations during the quarter increased 5% to Rs 19,995 crore.

The markets on Wednesday were in a corrective mode, with the Nifty ending the day with a decline of one-third of a percent. The shadow of the US debt crisis may extend to the Indian markets, which have already turned defensive.

The stressed airline had written to Sebi seeking clarification on whether the share allotment will fall under which section of the Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements Regulations.

Shares of NCC rose 6% to close at ₹108.4 crore and JKumar gained 1.2% on Wednesday. L&T ended 0.5% lower to close at ₹2,184 over the previous day's close. On Tuesday, NCC had fallen as much as 9%, JKumar fell 5%, and L&T was down 1%.

Adar Poonawalla-led Poonawalla Fincorp closed at ₹348.15 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday, up 0.61% from the previous close. Shares of Kochi-based Federal Bank closed at ₹123.85, down 1.43% from the previous close.

The absence of a country strategy poses challenges to project performance, Muthoo said in an interview with ET, even after expressing satisfaction over the execution of the first project his office evaluated in India. The New Development Bank, earlier called BRICS Development Bank, was set up in 2015 to finance public and private projects through loans, guarantees and equity participation.

The funds raised will be utilised to prepay Suzlon Energy's debt and capital expenditure. It will help the company in meeting early redemption of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth $35,931,200, which were originally due for payment in 2032.

This means India's valuations are more or less similar to or lower than long-time averages, but they have still not fallen to levels that give investors comfort to put money aggressively.