On Friday, the Indian stock market opened a bit lower. The Sensex and Nifty are watching closely as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to announce its decision on interest rates today. Many people think the RBI will lower rates to help boost our slowing economy.
By around 9:20 am, the Sensex was down by 72 points, sitting at 77,985, while the Nifty50 dropped by 19 points to 23,584. This week, the Nifty50 had gained a little, around 0.5%, but it’s still down about 4.4% compared to the last meeting on December 6, 2024. This drop is mainly due to slow growth and weaker company earnings.
Today’s decision will be important. It’s expected to be the first rate cut since May 2020, especially after the government recently decided to cut personal income tax to help people spend more. The RBI will announce its decision at 10:00 a.m. IST.
Looking at individual stocks, some of the big losers on Sensex included Power Grid, ITC, SBI, Nestle, and TCS, which fell between 1% and 3%. On the upside, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Zomato, Tata Steel, and M&M saw gains. Bharti Airtel stood out, rising almost 4% after it shared impressive earnings of Rs 14,781 crore in the third quarter.
In contrast, SBI shares dropped by nearly 1.5% despite seeing a big jump in net profit to Rs 16,891 crore, which was much higher than the expected Rs 16,219 crore. Cochin Shipyard’s shares fell more than 7% after it reported a 27% decline in its net profit to Rs 177 crore for Q3 FY25. More news is expected soon!
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