Today, the Indian equity benchmark indices, BSE Sensex and Nifty50, reached record highs in the opening trade before turning red. BSE Sensex hit an all-time high of 80,481.36, while Nifty50 saw a fresh high of 24,461.05. However, as of 9:20 AM, BSE Sensex was trading at 80,195.88, down 156 points or 0.19%, and Nifty50 was at 24,397.40, down 36 points or 0.15%.

Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities mentioned that the underlying trend for Nifty remains positive. After surpassing the crucial overhead resistance of 24,400 levels, the index could potentially reach a significant resistance level of 24,960 in the near future, with an immediate support level at 24,250.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal, expects the market to trade with a positive bias, focusing on upcoming inflation data, Q1FY25 earnings, and the budget. The pharma sector is likely to remain in the spotlight due to comfortable valuations and expectations of healthy earnings growth in Q1.

Looking at global markets, S&P 500 futures remained steady, Japan’s Topix was unchanged, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 experienced a 0.5% decline, and Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose by 0.3%.

The dollar strengthened after recovering from a three-week low following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s cautious statements on potential interest rate cuts. Traders are closely monitoring the New Zealand dollar for clues about possible policy adjustments before the central bank’s rate decision.

Some stocks are under the F&O ban today, including India Cements, IEX, ABFRL, Bandhan Bank, PEL, GNFC, Chambal Fertilisers, Indus Tower, and Balrampur Chini Mills.

Foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers on Tuesday, purchasing shares worth Rs 314 crore, while domestic institutional investors also bought shares worth Rs 1,416 crore. The net long position of FIIs increased from Rs 3.77 lakh crore on Monday to Rs 3.85 lakh crore on Tuesday.