Nifty scale above 24,500; Oil & gas shares in demand

The headline equity indices traded with substantial gains in the morning trade, supported by easing global trade tensions and sustained foreign inflows and a continued rise in India's foreign exchange reserves, which climbed for the eighth straight week. Nifty climbed above the 24,500 level. Oil & gas shares extended gains for the second consecutive trading session.

At 10:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rallied 460.03 points or 0.57% to 80,962.02. The Nifty 50 index rose 167.70 points or 0.69% to 24,514.40.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.08% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.88%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,383 shares rose and 1,163 shares fell. A total of 223 shares were unchanged.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, added 1.15% to 18.47.

Economy:

India's foreign exchange reserves (Forex) rose by USD 1.983 billion to USD 688.129 billion in the week that ended on April 25, extending gains for the eighth straight week, official data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) this week showed.

The RBI data shows that foreign currency assets (FCAs) witnessed an uptick of USD 2.168 billion reaching at USD 580.663 billion.

In the reported week, the gold reserves with the RBI declined by USD 207 million, standing at USD 84.365 billion.

The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which are kept with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), witnessed a rise reaching USD 18.589 billion, up USD 21 million in the reporting week.

India's foreign exchange reserves rose USD 8.310 billion to USD 686.145 billion in the week that ended on April 18.

Earnings Today:

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.35%), Indian Hotels Company (up 1.56%), Coforge (up 1.39%), Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company (up 1.34%), DCM Shriram (up 2%), Computer Age Management Services (down 0.76%), CCL Products (up 0.33%), Capri Global Capital (up 3.27%), Cigniti Technologies (up 0.94%), Ethos (up 1.08%), Jammu & Kashmir Bank (up 1.39%), Unicommerce Esolutions (up 3.05%) and Zee Media Corporation (down 0.50%) will declare their result later today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Oil & Gas index jumped 1.31% to 11,408.80. The index advanced 2.05% in the two consecutive trading sessions.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (up 4.97%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 4.21%), Indraprastha Gas (up 3.95%), Adani Total Gas (up 3.81%), Indian Oil Corporation (up 3.63%), Castrol India (up 2.27%), Aegis Logistics (up 2.15%), Gujarat Gas (up 1.97%), Gujarat State Petronet (up 1.60%) and Mahanagar Gas (up 1.58%) advanced.

On the other hand, Oil & Natural Gas Corpn (down 1.9%), Oil India (down 1.41%) and GAIL (India) (down 1%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Avenue Supermarts (Dmart) declined 2.66% after the company's consolidated net profit fell 2.19% to Rs 550.90 crore in Q4 FY25 as compared with Rs 563.25 crore in Q4 FY24. Revenue from operations jumped 16.86% YoY to Rs 14,871.86 crore during the quarter ended 31st March 2025.

Marico rallied 3.70% after the company reported a 7.86% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 343 crore in Q4 FY25 as compared with Rs 318 crore in Q4 FY24. Revenue from operations increased 19.84% to Rs 2,730 crore during the quarter as compared with Rs 2,278 crore in Q4 FY24.

City Union Bank added 1.93% after the private sector bank's net profit rallied 13% to Rs 288 crore on 15% jump in total income to Rs 1,784 crore in Q4 FY25 over Q4 FY24.

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