Stock Market: 3PM dive shaves off gains; banking fear stages comeback in US

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By S Jha

New Delhi, April 25: For months, 3 PM is a critical juncture in the Indian bourses when the action of the day unfolds with most intensity. On Tuesday, indices erased most of the gains as the clock turned 3 PM, with deep dive, and the trend was reflected in the Dow Jones, which was trading 200 points lower at the midday session.

First Republic Bank reported a deep cut in the deposits, losing $72 billion, to touch the base of $104.5 billion. This was much more than the expectations of the street. The US indices are also in the midst of the earning season, and stock specific actions are seen in the American as well as the Indian markets.

But the grim scenario of First Republic Bank has brought back the fear of the financial institutions reeling under the onslaught of the high interest rate regime in the US as the Federal Reserve continues to strike hawkish stance on inflation, while maintaining guidance for more aggressive rate hikes.

The Bank Nifty has emerged as the mainstay of the Indian equity markets. Axis Bank led the show along with State Bank of India, but all of them gave up the gains by the end of the session. Nifty was without a leadership from any of the heavyweights, which stopped the index from further rallying.

Railway stocks are trending, and some of them were rallying after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 16^th Vande Bharat train from Thiruvananthpuram in Kerala. Rail Vikas Nigam Limited zoomed by 20 per cent to finally cross Rs 100 level to close in upper circuit with lakhs of pending order. RITES, IRCON, Titagarh Wagon, Jupitor Wagons and other rail stocks were in firm upward trend.

The Raisina Hills has for past several weeks updating the readers of intense buyers’ interests in the rail stocks on the back of the anticipation that railways would be the sector gaining the attention of the Modi government in a big way after the Union Budget enhanced the gross budgetary support to the Ministry of Railways with 10 times higher allocations of Rs 2.50 lakh crores.

Nelco, a Tata company, reacting to stellar quarterly result zoomed by almost 13 per cent to close at about Rs 620. This scrip was the favourite in 2021, with multiple upper circuits, but had retraced to come lower and had made a bottom at Rs 488 a few weeks ago. Mirza International continues to be a blinder, as the scrip locked in the upper circuit shows no signs of looking back.