Gap-up opening seen for Sensex, Nifty; BEL, Infosys, Ola, NTPC Green Energy shares in focus

Indian equity benchmarks - Sensex and Nifty50 - are likely to open marginally higher on last trading day of this week. The stock markets will remain closed on Friday on account of the Holi festival. The Nifty Futures also indicated a positive start for the domestic bourses as GIFT Nifty Futures were up 13.5 points at 22,554, at the time of reporting.

Investors will react to Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data, which eased to a seven-month low of 3.61% YoY in February, aided by drop in food prices, especially for vegetables, eggs, and pulses. Core inflation ticked up further, however, to a 16-month high of 4.2% YoY, mainly owing to higher gold prices. On the other hand, industrial output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 5% YoY in January, with all categories seeing healthy growth. All categories except consumer non-durables registered positive growth, led by manufacturing and mining.

"The market will be moving in the midst of domestic tailwinds and global headwinds today. The domestic macros are highly positive. The better-than-expected decline in CPI inflation to 3.75% in February has brought down inflation below the RBI’s inflation target of 4%. Along with this, the surge in the IIP in January to an 8-month high of 5.01% brings in a desirable growth-inflation balance. This provides the perfect macro backdrop for a rate cut by the MPC in April,” says V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

On Wednesday, India's equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended flat amid sharp losses in IT stocks. The Sensex ended 72.56 points, or 0.10% lower, at 74,029.76, while Nifty50 closed down by 27.40, or 0.12%, at 22,470.50.

Global cues

In the overnight trade, Wall Street closed on a positive note as cooler-than-expected inflation data lifted market sentiments, while the U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies restricted gains. In the volatile trade, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite closed higher, while blue-chip Dow ended marginally lower.

Inflation in the U.S., as measured by the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell to 2.8% on a yearly basis in February from 3% in January, as per the data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Wednesday. The lower-than-expected inflation print raised hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve could cut its key interest rate this year.

However, the ongoing trade-war strife continues to impacted global equity market. In a fresh development, Trump imposed 25% duties on imported steel and aluminum, prompting Canada and Europe to levy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

In the Asia-Pacific region, equity markets opened mostly higher, barring China, as soft U.S. inflation data helped Wall Street closed higher after two days of sharp losses. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.95%, while South Korea’s KOSPI and Taiwan’s Weighted stock index surged up to 0.35%. The Singapore’s Straits Times was up 0.16%, China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Sang dropped up to 0.2%, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite dropped 0.5%. Australia’s ASX 200 ended 0.12% lower.

Stocks to watch

Bharat Electronics (BEL): The PSU company has signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence, worth ₹2,463 crore, for the supply and services of Ashwini Radars to the Indian Air Force.

Tata Steel: Rajiv Kumar has resigned as Vice President - Operations of Tata Steel Kalinganagar, effective March 12.

NHPC: The board of the company is scheduled to meet on March 19 to consider the borrowing plan for raising debt for the financial year 2025-26.

Infosys: The IT Major said in an exchange filing that it will expand its long-standing strategic collaboration with NYSE-listed Citizens in the areas of AI, cloud, and automation. Citizens is one of the oldest and largest financial institutions in the U.S.

BEML and Siemens: Both the companies in a joint statement said that they have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore opportunities in the semi-high-speed and suburban passenger train segments, as well as metro and commuter rail markets.

NTPC Green Energy: The renewable energy arm of NTPC has said that the second and last part capacity of 50 Mw, out of 105 Mw, Shajapur Solar Project (Unit-1) in Madhya Pradesh will start commercial operations from today.

Ola Electric: The EV company has announced a limited-time Holi flash sale offer for its popular S1 range of electric scooters.