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Sensex, Nifty trade flat with negative bias amid selling in FMCG stocks
Oct-24-2025

Indian equity benchmarks made a positive start on Friday but soon slipped below neutral lines amid profit-taking after almost a week-long rally and fresh foreign fund outflows. Foreign investors net sold shares worth Rs 1,166 crore on Thursday. Sharp overnight rally in crude oil prices amid supply fears also dented market sentiments. Sensex and Nifty were trading flat with negative bias in early deals amid selling in FMCG stocks led by Hindustan Unilever, which lost over 3.50%, following its September quarter earnings. Traders overlooked Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s statement that talks between India and the US for the proposed trade agreement are progressing, and expressed hope that both sides would work towards a fair and equitable agreement in the near future.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from Wall Street overnight, amid easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to meet to resolve tariff issues. Optimism about interest rate cut by the US Fed later this week is also aiding market sentiment.

Back home, defence stocks were in focus as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) reportedly said the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved procurement proposals worth Rs 79,000 crore to enhance the capabilities of the Indian armed forces.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 84519.34, down by 37.06 points or 0.04% after trading in a range of 84392.15 and 84707.44. There were 15 stocks advancing against 15 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.36%, while Small cap index was up by 0.14%.

The gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 1.60%, Realty up by 0.77%, Basic Materials up by 0.59%, Capital Goods up by 0.56% and Industrials up by 0.44%, while FMCG down by 1.06%, Healthcare down by 0.31% and Bankex down by 0.17% were the few losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up by 0.92%, Tata Steel up by 0.86%, Bharat Electronics up by 0.81%, Bharti Airtel up by 0.64% and Mahindra & Mahindra up by 0.56%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.62%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.96%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.80%, Ultratech Cement down by 0.56% and Titan Company down by 0.54% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Crisil Intelligence, an arm of domestic rating agency Crisil, in its latest report has said that India Inc's revenue is likely to have grown a modest 5-6% on-year in the July-September quarter following underwhelming performance of the power, coal, information technology (IT) services and steel sectors. However, the operating profit margins compressed by up to 0.60 per cent during the July-September period as compared to a year ago. The agency, which analysed performance of 600 companies, said companies in the sectors posting slower growth account for a third of the overall revenue. It added that sequentially, the revenue growth during July-September period will be one percentage point higher than the preceding June quarter.

From a profitability perspective, it said companies struggled to fully pass on incremental costs in the automobile, pharmaceuticals and aluminium sectors, and the operating profit margin likely fell 0.50-1 per cent in Q2. Continuing geopolitical uncertainties weighed on the IT services sector, with project deferrals likely limiting revenue growth to 1 per cent, while in the steel sector revenue is expected to have grown a moderate 4 per cent on-year despite having a volume growth of 9 per cent due to decline in steel prices.

The power sector's revenue likely grew a mere 1 per cent, affected by a surge in hydro-generation because of monsoon being 108 per cent of the long-period average and a 10 per cent rise in renewable energy generation, which led to reduced demand for coal generation. As a result, the coal sector's revenue growth was likely flat. It said the cement sector likely rebounded with 8 per cent revenue growth following a 6-7 per cent on-year increase in volume over a low base and pre-festival demand, and added that the pharmaceutical sector is expected to have grown 8 per cent on export demand and stable domestic market conditions. It said telecom services revenue likely grew 7 per cent in Q2 because of higher realisations on account of costlier subscription plans, even as subscriber growth was flat. 

Elaborating on its profitability compression expectations, it said the automobile sector's margins are expected to have contracted 1.50-2 per cent on-year owing to the continual rise in aluminium prices, which grew by 11 per cent. Margins for the aluminium sector likely moderated 1-1.5 per cent on lower export realisations on account of lower regional premiums. In the pharmaceutical sector, margins are expected to have contracted 1.5-2 per cent owing to pricing pressure on existing products, which faced higher competition in export markets compared with newly launched products. It noted cement, steel and telecom services sectors are likely to have expanded profit margins during the quarter.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 25883.20, down by 8.20 points or 0.03% after trading in a range of 25840.30 and 25944.15. There were 28 stocks advancing against 21 stocks declining, while 1 stock remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 3.86%, Shriram Finance up by 1.08%, ICICI Bank up by 0.89%, Tata Steel up by 0.86% and ONGC up by 0.85%. On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever down by 3.67%, Cipla down by 2.42%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 1.87%, Adani Ports & SEZ down by 0.73% and Max Healthcare down by 0.60% were the top losers.

Asian markets are trading in green; Nikkei 225 surged 747.39 points or 1.54% to 49,389.00, Hang Seng rose 175.02 points or 0.67% to 26,143.00, KOSPI increased 84.44 points or 2.2% to 3,930.00, Jakarta Composite gained 21.2 points or 0.26% to 8,295.55, Shanghai Composite strengthened 16.57 points or 0.42% to 3,938.98 and Straits Times was up by 11.35 points or 0.26% to 4,427.62.
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