Tale of the Tape 

Howdy folks! Markets continued to climb higher.

$NIFTY50.NSE ( ▼ 0.68% ) and Sensex gained over a percent each to close up for a fourth straight session. PS - the Nifty reclaimed the 23,000 mark to hit the highest level in over a month. Midcaps (+0.6%) and Smallcaps (+0.7%) also posted solid gains. The advance-decline ratio was in favour of the bulls (3:2).

It was a wave of green across sectors. Oil & Gas (+1.6%), Auto (+1.4%) and IT (+1.3%) saw strong buying.

The US Federal Reserve partly soothed investor nerves over Trump’s tariffs. Read our top story on the takeaways from its recent meeting.

CLSA believes this media stock could double in the next 12-24 months. More details below.

Wire and cables stocks got KO-ed today. Check out their charts below to find out why.

Ola Electric cracked -4% after five RTOs across the country raided their stories and allegedly found some operating without a trade certificate.

AB Capital jumped +4%. Global brokerage firm Macquarie sees a 50% upside from current levels.

Jubilant Foodworks (-1.5%) was under pressure after CLSA said it estimates a 2-2.5% hit on profits due to a sharp fall in the Turkish Lira.

Paras Defence rallied +10% intraday before giving up some gains after bagging a Rs 142 cr from the defence ministry.

Hindustan Copper was up +4% after global prices hit the $10,000-mark over US tariff fears.

Automotive Axles (+6%) will partner with Meritor HVS to restructure its commercial operations.

Here are the closing prints:

Economy
Jai Ho! Jerome Powell

Global markets including India were up after the Fed soothed investor nerves over Trump’s tariff war. FYI - US central bank also held rates for a second time in a row, which was expected as it had warned of fewer rate cuts in 2025 back in December. Here are the top takeaways from the Fed meet:

1) The big news is that the Fed is still waiting for evidence of a possible inflation spike OR that economic growth is going to take a big hit. Now, holding the status quo on interest rates doesn’t mean that things won’t get bad; the Fed did reduce growth projections & hike inflation estimates marginally. But it’s nothing to worry about.

Powell also hinted that the inflationary impact of tariffs could be temporary, which kept markets happy. This is important, because it means it may not hesitate to cut rates if growth does dip a lot. Money quote of the day: 

“We do understand that sentiment has fallen off pretty sharply, but economic activity has not yet and so we are watching carefully…I would tell people the economy seems to be healthy."

2) Less rate cuts in general sucks for FII inflows. For the unaware, lower US interest rates means FIIs are more likely to invest in emerging markets.But with the Fed not cutting, we might have to wait till H2-2025 before we see any big FII return to India.

3) Finally, there’s no need to worry about rate cuts back home. Inflation is on a clear downward trajectory in India: CPI inflation came in at 3.61% in Feb, much below the RBI’s 4% target. This means the RBI will cut more, with some experts even predicting a 35 bps cut in April!