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Indian rupee weakened on Thursday, pressured by dollar demand by importers, even as the greenback lingered near a four-month low against its major peers amid concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy. The rupee closed at 87.1150 against the U.S. dollar, down about 0.2% on the day.

energy stocks rallying on lower crude prices. Market sentiment also improved following U.S. President Donald Trump's temporary tariff reprieve on auto imports from Mexico and Canada. The benchmark BSE Sensex added 609.86 points or 0.83% to close at 74,340.09, while the broader Nifty 50 index closed at 22,544.70, higher by 207.40 points or 0.93%.

CRISIL. The forecast rests on two key assumptions: the continuation of normal monsoon patterns and soft commodity prices. CRISIL expects that these factors, coupled with cooling food inflation, tax benefits outlined in the Union Budget 2025-2026, and lower borrowing costs, will stimulate discretionary consumption. «India’s resilience is being tested again. Over the past few years, we have built a few safe harbours against exogenous shocks — healthy economic growth, low current account deficit and external public debt, and adequate forex reserves — which provide ample policy latitude. So, while the waters can turn choppy, consumption-led rural and urban demand will be crucial to short-term growth. On the other hand, continuing investments and efficiency gains will aid in the medium term. We foresee both manufacturing and services supporting growth through fiscal 2031,» said Amish Mehta, Managing Director and CEO of CRISIL.

Trump has doubled down on the on the tariff war that he's unleashed, pledging to impose similar levies on India and others from April 2. These reciprocal tariffs are in response to, according to him, high import taxes on American goods.

Shares of Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd.(up 3.18 per cent), Apollo Tyres Ltd.(up 2.93 per cent), Bharat Forge Ltd.(up 2.78 per cent), Balkrishna Industries Ltd.(up 2.43 per cent) and Eicher Motors Ltd.(up 2.13 per cent) ended the day as top gainers in the pack.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Grade-A real estate companies have been expanding their footprints from top-tier cities to tier-2 cities lately. A combination of factors such as affordability, relatively higher growth potential in untapped regions, and improving infrastructure, is enticing realtors and homebuyers towards tier-2 cities such as Agra, Chandigarh, Goa, Jaipur and Nagpur.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. You don't really need a finance degree to excel in the stock market—ask Sapna Shaligram. The 58-year-old chemistry teacher turned psychological counsellor is a self-taught investor who has been tracking stock markets since the early 90s.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 is blamed for deepening the Great Depression. Don’t tell that to the Trump administration, which just unveiled the toughest tariffs in almost a century.

Donald Trump’s threatened reciprocal levies that could upend bilateral and global trade. “Our relations with the US are probably the best they have been,” India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said Wednesday at Chatham House — a London-based independent policy institute. India’s trade minister is holding conversations with his US counterparts, the minister said. Trump told a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday that many nations, including India, set tariff rates too high and reiterated they will be hit by reciprocal levies that take effect from April 2.

Goldman Sachs (GS) has issued a neutral call on BSE Ltd., revising its target price downward to Rs 4,230 per share, citing potential headwinds from the recent changes in the options market expiry schedule by the NSE. The key concern highlighted by the brokerage is the impact of NSE’s shift in weekly option contract expiry days. Effective January 1, 2025, NSE will move its expiry day to Monday, while BSE’s will be Tuesday, creating an asymmetry in the options market.

IMF report to flag «tepid» private investment growth in India, the Congress on Thursday said the way out of the current "economic slump" needs measures to boost consumption, enhancing policy predictability, and rationalising trade policy. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has devoted an entire section to «Reigniting Private Investment in India» in its just-released annual India Article IV Consultation Report. «Somewhat unusually, it is a strong--if implicit- critique of the Modi government's policies and actions,» he said in a statement. «The report underscores the tepid private investment growth in India, noting that 'private corporate investment has been sluggish especially compared with historical averages.'

crude oil prices has fueled a rally in state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), with stocks gaining up to 16% over four consecutive sessions. Investors are optimistic that lower crude prices will boost OMC margins, but several headwinds persist, including higher crude oil imports from the US, LPG under-recoveries, and a depreciating rupee. The crude prices are currently at a 3-year low and Brent has slipped below the $70/ bbl mark while the US WTI is hovering around $66/bbl.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Soon after Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, Xi Jinping asked his aides to urgently analyze the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. His concern, according to people who consult with senior Chinese officials, was that as President Trump gears up for a showdown with Beijing, China could get isolated like Moscow during that era.

The NSE Nifty index was trading 80.41 points up at 22417.7, while BSE Sensex was up 238.93 points at 73969.16 at the time of writing this report.

Silver, however, traded positively, with its March futures contracts on MCX opening higher by 0.36% or Rs 354 at Rs 97,896/kg.

«We are still some time away from paint stocks bottoming out. We have seen players like Asian Paints, the margin profile coming down from say 20% plus kind of a level to about 15-16 odd,» says Pankaj Pandey, Head Research, ICICIdirect.com. Just wanted your own sense on what Tesla's entry into India, if all gets cleared, actually means for the incumbents from within the passenger vehicle segment within that segment. Your namely Tata Motors, M&M, and a Hyundai as well. Pankaj Pandey: So, our sense is that when you look at the cheapest price product from Tesla, the overall costing is going to be in excess of 40 lakhs. So, from that perspective, it is not going to compete with the listed players. Probably it will have or it is going to compete with the likes of German manufacturers, especially BMW, Mercedes, and others.

Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath, who was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, struck a cautionary note on social media, hinting that his accolade might be a delayed indicator of a market peak. «This is what the top of the bull market looks like with a lag . A broker winning the @EY_India entrepreneur of the year 2024,» Kamath posted on X, formerly Twitter, on March 6. He added a cinematic touch to his reflection, referencing the melancholic Bollywood song Zindagi Kaisi Yeh Paheli from the 1974 film Anand, a song that contemplates the unpredictable nature of life, which played in the background as he received the award, adding a reflective, almost ironic undertone to the moment.

Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.(up 4.73%), Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Ltd.(up 4.09%), Pokarna Ltd.(up 4.06%), The Orissa Minerals Development Company Ltd.(up 3.05%), KIOCL Ltd.(up 2.87%), MOIL Ltd.(up 2.73%), 20 Microns Ltd.(up 2.44%), Coal India Ltd.(up 2.10%), Aro Granite Industries Ltd.(up 1.83%) and NMDC Ltd.(up 1.41%) were among the top gainers.

Domestic benchmark index NSE Nifty gained 73.46 points to 22410.75, while the BSE Sensex traded 195.4 points up at 73925.63.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India's top B-schools, including Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), are betting on external coaches and counsellors to help students ace the placements at a time when the job market has turned uncertain amid a slowing economy, set to be exacerbated by a trade war unleashed by US president Donald Trump.

Wednesday’s 740-point surge in the Sensex, coupled with a 4% rebound in the BSE Smallcap index over the last two sessions, has fueled optimism that the market may have found a bottom. Key technical indicators—including the 14-week RSI, extreme breadth readings, FII long-short ratios, and seasonality trends—are signaling that a potential turning point is near.