Closing Bell: Tariff relief lifts Nifty above 23,300, Sensex rises 1,650 pts; all sectors in the green

Indian equity indices ended on strong note with Nifty above 23,300 on April 15. At close, the Sensex was up 1,577.63 points or 2.10 percent at 76,734.89, and the Nifty was up 500 points or 2.19 percent at 23,328.55.

We wrap up today's edition of the Moneycontrol live market blog, and will be back tomorrow morning with all the latest updates and alerts. Please visit https://www.moneycontrol.com/markets/global-indices for all the global market action.

The rally is fuelled by the surprise pause in reciprocal tariffs which continued today led by the exemption on electronics goods also. The performance was broad-based, with sectors like financials, capital goods, realty and metals exhibiting optimism. Auto stocks gained on potential tariff relief and banking stocks benefited from deposit rate cuts.

However, investors remain watchful considering future supply chain impact due to escalated tariffs on China and products like Steel, Car. Domestically, the focus has shifted to the earnings season which has a weak forecast while global recovery and RBI’s accommodative stance are supporting sentiment.

Nifty continued its excellent upward journey on Monday and closed the day with hefty gains of 500 points. Nifty opened with a huge upside gap of 540 points and later shifted into a narrow range movement for better part of the session. The opening upside gap remains unfilled.

A small red candle has been formed with lower shadow after a sharp upside gap. Technically this market action could be an uptrend continuation pattern.

Nifty is now placed at the edge of upside breakout of the hurdle of 200-day EMA around 23360 levels. The huge unfilled opening upside gaps of the last few sessions indicate bullish runaway gaps, which are normally formed in the middle of a trend.

The near-term uptrend of Nifty remains intact. The next upside targets to be watched around 23650 and 23870 levels in the next 1-2 weeks. Immediate support is placed at 23200 levels.

The benchmark indices continued their positive momentum, with the Nifty ends 500 points higher, while the Sensex was up by 1578 points. Among sectors, all the major sectoral indices traded in positive territory, with the Realty index outperforming, gained 5.75 percent. Technically, on the backdrop of positive global sentiment, our market opened with a huge gap up, and after a strong opening, it hovered for the entire day between the 23250 to 23350/76500-76800 prices ranges.

In addition, on daily charts, the market is holding uptrend continuation formation, which supports a further uptrend from the current levels. We are of the view that the current market texture is bullish; however, due to temporary overbought conditions, we could see some profit booking at higher levels. For traders, 23400/76900 and 23500/77300 would act as key resistance areas, while 23200-23135/76400-76100 could serve as crucial support zones. However, below 23135/76100, the uptrend would be vulnerable. For day traders, as long as it is trading above 23130/76100, buying on intraday corrections and selling on rallies would be the ideal strategy.

Buoyancy across global equity markets provided major support to local benchmarks as recent developments suggest that there could be some solutions to the ongoing tariff war over next few weeks. However, falling crude oil prices and strong FII fund outflows continue to create a lot of uncertainty among the investors, leading to fears that falling demand could fuel recession in key economies.

Markets began the holiday-shortened week on a strong note, gaining over 2%, supported by positive global cues. The Nifty index opened with a gap-up and tested the resistance near the moving averages ribbon around the 23,400 mark in early trade, followed by a phase of narrow-range consolidation and finally closed at 23,328.55 level. All major sectors contributed to the up move, with realty, auto, and financials emerging as top performers. The broader markets also staged a strong recovery, with both midcap and smallcap indices rising nearly 3% each.

The rally was driven by optimism around the deferral of tariffs and the recent exemptions on select products, raising hopes for potential negotiations that could ease the overall impact on global trade. On the technical front, a decisive break above 23,400 in Nifty would further reinforce the recovery trend. Adding to the bullish sentiment, the sharp 20% decline in India VIX is a positive sign. In this backdrop, we recommend maintaining a stock-specific trading approach, with an emphasis on quality stock selection and disciplined trade management.

The index has formed a Hanging Man pattern on the daily chart, indicating a possible pause in the current rally. On the other hand, the index closed above the 100-EMA on the daily chart, which suggests continued positivity. Additionally, the RSI has just entered a positive crossover.

Summing it up, although the sentiment appears positive, a hint of fatigue is visible in the index following the steep rally over the past few days. Therefore, the possibility of a minor pullback on the downside cannot be ruled out.

Support is placed at 23,300; a decisive break below this level could trigger a correction towards 23,000. Resistance is placed at 23,370 and 23,650.

The presence of positive global triggers, such as the relaxation in tariffs, allowed the Index to start the truncated week on a strong note. However, it then oscillated within a narrow range before closing higher, ending the trade at 23,328.55 with notable gains of 500 points.

All sectors concluded in the green, with Realty and Auto standing out as the top performers. Mid and Smallcaps outperformed the Benchmark Index, registering gains of over 2.90%.

If the Index continues its upward momentum, it may encounter resistance in the 23,440-23,500 range, while strong support is expected at 23,050.

Indian rupee ended 28 paise higher at 85.77 per dollar on Tuesday versus Friday's close of 86.05.

Indian equity indices ended on strong note on April 15 with Nifty above 23,300.

BSE Midcap and smallcap indices rose 3 percent each.

All the sectoral indices ended in the green with realty index up more than 5 percent.

IndusInd Bank, Shriram Finance, L&T, Tata Motors, Axis Bank were among major gainers on the Nifty, while losers were HUL and ITC.

The Central Government has re-nominated Nalini Padmanabhan as Part-time Non-Official Director on the Board of Directors of the bank for a period of one year.

The Central Government has re-nominated Suraj Srivastava as Part-time Non-Official Director (Independent Director) on the Board of the bank for a period of one year.

xRohan Purshottamdas Mittal has ceased to be the Group Chief Financial Officer of the company, effective April 10. The Board has appointed Anuj Kumar Sethi as the interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company, effective April 11, until a new CFO is appointed by the Board.

The multi-product engineering company has appointed Parag Satpute as its new Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer. Satpute will oversee the strategy and operations of Greaves Engineering, Greaves Retail, Greaves Technologies, and Excel Controlinkage.

Sahil Barua, the founder of Delhivery, has resigned as Independent Director of Swiggy due to increased work commitments, effective April 11.

Indian Rupee gained today on weak US Dollar index and a surge in domestic markets. Domestic equities are up nearly 2.2%. Overnight decline in crude oil prices and upbeat macroeconomic data also supported the Rupee. India’s WPI inflation cooled off to 2.05% in March vs forecast of 2.5%. However, FII outflows capped sharp gains.

We expect Rupee to trade with a positive bias amid easing trade tariff worries and weak greenback. Overall weakness in crude oil prices may also support the rupee at lower levels. However, importer buying of Dollars and FII outflows may cap sharp gains.

Traders may take cues from Empire State manufacturing index data from the US. USDINR spot price is expected to trade in a range of Rs 85.40 to Rs 86.

The Sensex was up 1,531.58 points or 2.04 percent at 76,688.84, and the Nifty was up 482.90 points or 2.12 percent at 23,311.45. About 2933 shares advanced, 631 shares declined, and 122 shares unchanged.

The Board will meet on May 24 to consider raising funds through the private placement of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of up to Rs 500 crore in one or more tranches.

On the same date, the Board will also consider the audited (consolidated and standalone) financial results for Q4FY25 and the declaration of a dividend for FY25, if any.

The WPI food inflation has shown robust signs of resilience with the inflation rate cooling off from 5.94% in February 2025 to 4.66% in March 2025. The moderation of food prices due to a seasonal drop continues to be a key contributor to the drop in food prices and also influences the overall WPI inflation with the index marginally easing from 2.38% to 2.05% on a sequential basis.

With the recent rate cuts, we believe there could be some demand pick-up. Hence, inflation will need to be watched, even as we closely track the monsoon outcomes. Overall, we believe that food and commodity inflation will remain rangebound in Q1 and Q2.

The Board has approved the appointment of Thangappan Karunakaran as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the company, effective April 11.

Consequently, Thangappan Karunakaran has resigned from the post of Chief Operating Officer.

The company's subsidiary, Nureca Technologies, has received its annual registration with the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Its manufacturing facility in Mohali, Punjab, is now registered with the USFDA.

This registration authorizes Nureca Technologies to continue manufacturing and exporting a suite of medical devices to the United States.

Quality Power Electrical Equipments has secured a notable order for the supply of reactors for Power Transmission – Coil Products for Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) application.

The company has completed the acquisition of Borqs International Holding Corp, which will help expand its portfolio in high-demand areas such as IoT, 5G, and connected consumer devices.

The company's subsidiary, Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL), has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with NTPC to develop a 200 MW firm and dispatchable renewable energy (FDRE) project. With this project, TPREL’s total renewable utility capacity has reached 10.9 GW.

Stocks in Europe and Asia rose as US President Donald Trump floated a potential pause in auto tariffs, providing further relief to the market after he suspended levies on some consumer electronics.

Capacite Infraprojects has received Letter of Intent (LOI) from TenX Realty Limited (a step-down subsidiary of Raymond Limited), for a total contract value of Rs 220 Crore

The company’s chemicals business has completed the acquisition of the food additives business from Savannah Surfactants. Savannah Surfactants has a manufacturing capacity of 5,200 MTPA of finished products in Goa.

The Sensex was up 1,664.97 points or 2.22 percent at 76,822.23, and the Nifty was up 514.10 points or 2.25 percent at 23,342.65. About 2885 shares advanced, 619 shares declined, and 126 shares unchanged.

The company has received a residential project worth Rs 396.5 crore in Uttar Pradesh from Godrej Properties.

Mukul Kumar Agrawal has resigned as President – Manufacturing [Cluster 1 & NPD] of the company due to personal reasons, effective April 14.

Revolt Motors has officially began operations in Nepal with the launch of its first dealership in the heart of Kathmandu.

KPIT Technologies GmbH, a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of KPIT Technologies, has invested EURO 1.37 million towards share capital of KPIT

engineering SUARL, Tunisia (wholly owned step-down subsidiary).

Biocon Biologics announced a settlement and license agreement with Regeneron that clears the way to commercialize Yesafili (aflibercept-jbvf),

an interchangeable biosimilar aflibercept, in the United States.

YESAFILI, a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor, is used to treat several different types of ophthalmology conditions, is a biosimilar of its reference product EYLEA (aflibercept).

Biocon Biologics and Regeneron executed the settlement agreement to dismiss the pending appeal at the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (USCAFC) of patent US11084865 (‘865 patent) and the pending litigation at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, Clarksburg Division.

This agreement enables the Company to launch in the United States in the second half of calendar year 2026 or earlier in certain circumstances. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

The company has received the Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) post inspection conducted by the United States Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) at API manufacturing facility Unit–4, Atchutapuram, Anakapalli District (Visakhapatnam), Andhra Pradesh from 27th January, 2025 to 31st January, 2025.

We recently celebrated our 35 foundation day. We were earlier following KRA concept . Going forward, our present chairman has said that we will drive upon transparency and trust. We are moving from KRA to a conducive regulatory approach where we will work together with the industry. It is not that we have done it before, we will focus on this more.

We will rely more on creativity of the industry and bring in more flexibility. We have launched many recent initiatives like Rs 250 SIP, catching young investor with Tarun Yojana which has now been launched in 9 districts - we believe that once youngsters are ale to understand SIPs they will be able to influence larger society. The third is regulation 24b. We are doing a significant review of this as it is one of the most restrictive clauses for MFS.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), GM Breweries, Bombay Wire Ropes, Delta Industrial Resources, Hathway Bhawani Cabletel & Datacom, MRP Agro, and Swastik Safe Deposit & Investments will release their quarterly earnings on April 15.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai, has approved the merger of the company’s subsidiary, Capiot Software, into Persistent Systems.

Over the years, there are three changes we are very proud of : Electronic trading, dematerialisation of shares and MFs.

The company has received a work order worth Rs 127.8 crore from S&T (Construction), North Western Railway, Indian Railways, for the design, manufacture, supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of a microprocessor-based EI system at 20 stations of the Ajmer Division.

The work also includes automatic block signaling and associated indoor and outdoor works of signaling and telecom systems/gears.

Sundeep Sikka - CEO Nippon AMC says:

"It is interesting to see the SIP book was just 2000 crore per annum. That is what we are now doing per month. Today 50% SIPs are from B-30s, smallers cities and towns. As an industry we are adding Rs 3,000 crore per month just from SIPs".

"Today the MF has ownership of more than 50 percent of Nifty 50 stocks. This gives a voice to investors in all these companies".

Markets at 11:30

The Sensex was up 1,567.97 points or 2.09 percent at 76,725.23, and the Nifty was up 478.05 points or 2.09 percent at 23,306.60. About 2857 shares advanced, 520 shares declined, and 139 shares unchanged.

Poonawalla Fincorp has expanded its portfolio of secured lending products with the launch of its Gold Loan Business. T

With faster approvals in less than 30 minutes, minimal documentation, and multiple repayment options, customers can unlock the value of their gold without selling it.

The EPC company has secured new orders worth Rs 1,085 crore in the domestic market.

The company has signed Term Sheet to acquire a majority stake in an intelligent automation-led enterprise, India’s first deep-tech AI-powered autonomous software engineering platform.

S&P 500 is up by 9 % from the April lows, on the tariff pause. Since Nifty is up only 3% from the April lows we have some catching up to do. This catching up and some short-covering will keep the market strong for the day. But investors have to understand that the uncertainty triggered by Trump is very much alive and, perhaps, more uncertainty is likely to come with sectoral tariffs, which Trump has declared are going to come. The Indian pharmaceutical sector may again come under pressure from this renewed threat. Even though the bond market has reined-in Trump who was on a rampage, he is unlikely to backtrack on tariffs.

During this period of heightened uncertainty and potential volatility it would be better for investors to focus on strong domestic consumption sectors like financials, telecom, aviation, hotels, hospitals and selectively on autos.

The company has received orders worth Rs  7.52 crores from DRDO, Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) and a private company and has also been declared the Lowest Bidder for orders worth Rs. 11.48 crores from DRDO & PSU.

Nucleus Software  continued collaboration with Deem Finance LLC, a Gargash Group company and a leading consumer ϐinance provider regulated by the UAE Central Bank.

As part of this expansion, Deem has selected FinnOne Neo Collections to accelerate its digital collections transformation and enhance operational efϐiciency.

#1 Cement production increases 8 percent to 7.90 lakh MT Vs 7.29 lakh MT, YoY

#2 Cement sales grow 7 percent to 7.94 lakh MT Vs 7.45 lakh MT, YoY

#3 Cement boards production drops 5 percent to 20,767 MT Vs 21,976 MT, YoY

#4 Cement boards sales down 6 percent at 20,438 MT Vs 21,651 MT, YoY

#5 RMC production & sales decline 14 percent to 73,954 CuM Vs 85,580 CuM, YoY

#6 Doors production & sales dip 23 percent to 4,725 units Vs 6,169 units, YoY

The Sensex was up 1,546.71 points or 2.06 percent at 76,703.97, and the Nifty was up 475.00 points or 2.08 percent at 23,303.55. About 2784 shares advanced, 418 shares declined, and 160 shares unchanged.

#1 Net revenue grows 0.7 percent to Rs 132.6 crore Vs Rs 131.7 crore, YoY

#2 Own brands revenue drops 2.9 percent to Rs 109.6 crore Vs Rs 112.9 crore, YoY

#3 Wine Tourism revenue jumps 24.6 percent to Rs 20.4 crore Vs Rs 16.4 crore, YoY

#4 SulaFest'25, higher spend per guest, strong occupancy rates lift Wine Tourism revenue

Premier Energies and Germany-based RENA Technologies GmbH have entered into a strategic technology partnership focused on process innovation for N-Type solar cells and development of wet chemistry for nextgeneration tandem solar cell technologies.