Stock markets in choppy waters, L&T drags Sensex to close lower
The Hindu
Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement and Maruti were the gainers.
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty pared early gains to close marginally lower in highly volatile trade on Thursday due to losses in Larsen & Toubro and cautious trading ahead of the release of domestic inflation data.
The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 35.68 points or 0.06% to settle at 61,904.52 after hitting the crucial 62,000 mark in opening deals. During the day, it hit a low of 61,823.07 and a high of 62,168.22.
The NSE Nifty dipped 18.10 points or 0.10% to end at 18,297.
Among the Sensex firms, Larsen & Toubro tumbled over 5% after the firm said its Non-Executive Chairman A.M. Naik has decided to step down from the post.
ITC, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services were the other laggards.
However, Asian Paints rose the most by 3.22% after it posted a 43.97% growth in consolidated net profit to ₹1,258.41 crore for the fourth quarter.
Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement and Maruti were the gainers.
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The Union Budget unveiled on February 1, 2025, has come at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty and a flagging domestic economy. The real GDP growth is estimated at 6.4% for 2024-25 and between 6.3-6.8% for 2025-26, a far cry from >8 percent growth required annually to make India a developed nation by 2047. While much attention has been devoted to the demand stimulus through income tax cuts, not enough is said about the proposed reforms in urban development, tariff rationalisation, and regulatory simplification aimed at making Indian cities and corporates more competitive. Since the majority of economic activity is located in cities (urban areas account for ~55% of GDP) and produced by large corporates (~40% of the national output and 55% of India’s exports), the above-mentioned reforms have a pivotal role in improving India’s trend growth rate. Below we unpack each reform.