Tale of the Tape 

Good evening everyone. Markets ZOOMED today!

Nifty (+3.8%) and Sensex (+3.7%) ended at over six-month highs after investors cheered the India-Pak ceasefire & US-China trade deal. Midcaps (+4.1%) and Smallcaps (+4.2%) popped off. A whopping 470 stocks in the NSE 500 ended higher.

It was a sea of green across sectors. IT (+6.7%) led the rally, followed by Real Estate (+5.9%) and Metals (+5.9%).

Three big geopolitical issues are being solved, which is GREAT news for markets. Read our top story to get the lowdown.

Yes Bank jumped intraday after Japan’s SMBC agreed to pick up a 20% stake. Swiggy’s Q4 was bad, but largely expected. More details below.

Pharma stocks were choppy AF.  Check out their charts below to find out why.

Infosys jumped +8%, leading the IT rally after investors bet on US growth over China trade tensions easing. 

Tourism stocks soared after India reopened 32 airports due to the Pak ceasefire. Indian Hotels, Lemontree and Indigo gained between +6% and +8%.

IndusInd Bank (-3%) was the top Nifty loser after reports said auditors could classify its accounting scandal as fraud.

Order wins. LTI Mindtree was up +6% after bagging a $450-million contract, its largest-ever! Meanwhile, Reliance Power soared +11% after emerging as the top bidder for SJVN’s solar and battery storage system.

Q4 reactions. Jyothy Labs cracked -5% on a meh Q4 show. Birla Corp was locked in a +20% upper circuit after its net profit was up +33% YoY.

Markets
Geopolitics Cools, Markets Roar

Markets soared today, hitting their highest level since December 2024! The India VIX -- aka the fear gauge -- also dropped a cool -16%. The obvious trigger was India & Pakistan’s ceasefire, but there’s a lot of geopolitical turmoil that’s quickly being resolved. Here’s what you need to know.

1) Post-Pahalgam conflict: After intense skirmishes, a ceasefire was surprisingly announced by Trump on Saturday. There’ve been a couple of violations, but both sides have agreed to uphold the temporary peace for now. Markets hadn’t corrected a lot after Operation Sindoor started, but tensions did escalate rapidly on Friday. FYI - fighting may break out again in the future, but it’s good to see a temporary solution for now. 

2) US-China deal: Trump and Xi appear to have averted a full-blown trade war! The two countries announced that the US will reduce tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% (vs 145% earlier) and China will  cut duties on US imports to 10% (vs 125% earlier). Talks are still ongoing, but for now this is GOOD news for the global economy. PS - don’t worry too much about India’s competitive edge. America’s effective tariff rate on China is still higher than India, which is what matters.

3) Russia-Ukraine: Putin has proposed holding direct talks with Zelensky later this week. ICYMI - this comes after Europe urged Russia to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire that Trump also backed. If everything goes well, we could see a truce being passed here as well. This would be another BIG boost for the global economy.

Big Picture: Keep a close eye on how things pan out. But it’s clear some of the biggest risks to global growth are slowly fading away. Gold prices are starting to drop, which hopefully should make stocks look attractive again!

Specials
Time to Buy Suzlon?

Suzlon is +45% in the past year despite a healthy correction from its recent top. Should you buy the dip or wait for further downside?

In less than 5 minutes, we cover everything about the recent developments in the company, brokerage updates and SEBI RAs’ views on Suzlon. Check out our recent video here.