Weekly Index Wrap (March 24-28, 2025)

1 Apr 2025 , 10:59 AM

NIFTY AUTO

＄NIFTY AUTO – Exporters slide on tariff concerns

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	21891.1	21987.1	21665.2	21938.7
2025-03-25	22050.9	22092.4	21683.1	21737.6
2025-03-26	21776.1	21924.6	21704.8	21742.8
2025-03-27	21445.7	21611.9	21216.4	21516.8
2025-03-28	21570.2	21577.2	21200.8	21295.5

Weekly Performance: -2.1%

The NIFTY AUTO Index fell 2.12% while the benchmark NIFTY 50 rose 0.72% during the same period. Bosch India and Hero MotoCorp were on top of gainers list with 3.38% and 2.59% rise, respectively, while Eicher Motors, MRF and Exide Industries also had moderate gains. Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto and Balkrishna Industries were among the top losers that shed between 2.11 per cent and 4.86 per cent. Key headwind for Indian auto stocks remained renewed concerns related to tariffs from US. As such, investors favoured more domestic oriented themes vs exporters.

NIFTY 50

＄NIFTY 50 – Decouples from US markets and rises 0.7%

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	23515.4	23708.8	23433.5	23658.3
2025-03-25	23751.5	23869.6	23601.4	23668.7
2025-03-26	23700.9	23736.5	23451.7	23486.8
2025-03-27	23433.9	23646.4	23412.2	23591.9
2025-03-28	23600.4	23649.2	23450.2	23519.3

Weekly Performance: 0.7%

In a week when the US indices were down sharply, Indian indices performed admirably well. While the S&P 500 fell 1.53% last week, the NIFTY 50 index showed a positive performance, with a price change of 0.72%. The top gainers include Bajaj Finserv, which surged by 8.67%, Grasim Industries with a gain of 5.74%, Ultratech Cement rose by 4.85%, Kotak Mahindra Bank increased by 4.43%, and Tata Consumer Products gained 4.23%. On the other hand, the top losers were led by IndusInd Bank, which declined by 5.39%, followed by Cipla, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Tata Motors with declines of 5.36%, 4.86%, 4.66%, and 4.05% respectively. Apart from IndusInd Bank, the stocks that fell were largely in sectors impacted by renewed worries of US tariffs – Auto and Pharma stocks. The index also saw a greater skew towards advances (30) than declines (20).

NIFTY BANK

＄NIFTY BANK – Strong Outperformance vs NIFTY 50

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	50982.7	51801.1	50795.9	51704.9
2025-03-25	51874.2	52063.9	51429.6	51607.9
2025-03-26	51640.1	51875.8	51069.1	51209.0
2025-03-27	51084.7	51714.4	51050.9	51575.9
2025-03-28	51608.4	51839.1	51335.4	51564.9

Weekly Performance: 1.9%

The NIFTY BANK Index rose 1.92% over the last week, outperforming the NIFTY 50 Index that rose 0.72% over the same period. NIFTY BANK Index Top Index Gainers: Bank of Baroda (+5.46%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (+4.43%), HDFC Bank (+3.27%), Punjab National Bank (+3.21%) and Axis Bank (+2.98%). On the other hand, among the top losers were IndusInd Bank which tanked by 5.39 per cent, IDFC First Bank by 2.36 and AU Small Finance Bank by 1.51 per cent. Last week, 9 stocks advanced and 3 stocks declined on the NIFTY BANK Index, suggesting a bullish breadth.

NIFTY BANK Index has displayed a robust recovery in the month of March 2023. Improved FII inflows and the historical preference of FIIs for private sector banks are some of the reasons behind the performance. The worst performer – IndusInd Bank – continues to face headwinds owing to its accounting irregularities.

NIFTY MIDCAP SELECT

＄NIFTY MIDCAP SELECT – Profit booking sees it underperforming NIFTY 50

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	11597.7	11747.7	11546.5	11699.5
2025-03-25	11770.8	11780.2	11503.5	11581.4
2025-03-26	11604.0	11675.3	11479.2	11502.2
2025-03-27	11429.0	11558.0	11415.0	11515.8
2025-03-28	11619.0	11701.0	11470.2	11546.0

Weekly Performance: 0.3%

The NIFTY MIDCAP SELECT index underperformed the broader NIFTY 50 last week, with a price change of 0.34%. Profit booking could have impacted the midcap stocks more than the large caps as part of the profit booking was likely offset by FII inflows (that had picked up) in the large caps. CoForge was a standout performer among top gainers, increasing by 4.68%, followed by Persistent Cummins, Polycab and Federal Bank with gains of 4.52%, 3.88%, 3.12%, and 2.9% respectively. Conversely, IDEA was the largest loser, decreasing by 10.76%, with Dixon, Indian Hotels Indus Tower and Lupin also experiencing declines. The index saw 11 advances and 14 declines, indicating a bias towards losers.

NIFTY ENERGY

＄NIFTY ENERGY – March in placed despite the profit booking witnessed last week

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	33849.2	34149.1	33760.2	33955.0
2025-03-25	34123.8	34144.4	33418.9	33502.4
2025-03-26	33600.1	33791.6	33165.3	33205.4
2025-03-27	33130.8	33778.9	33060.1	33682.9
2025-03-28	33771.4	34075.0	33481.4	33571.6

Weekly Performance: 0.3%

NIFTY ENERGY index witnessed a comparatively muted performance last week, with a price change of 0.29%. The broader NIFTY 50 index rose 0.72% in comparison. Hitachi Energy, Adani Energy, Glory, Thermax and Powergrid were some of the top gainers in the NIFTY ENERGY index with percentage changes in the range of 2.56% to 4.93%. Castrol INOX Wind NLC India JP Power and ATGL were among the top losers on the Nifty, down -4.46% to -6.67% There were more declines than advances on the index with 23 losers and 17 gainers.

Performance of many stocks was dictated by stock specific newsflow. GAIL was booted on newsflow around expansions in capacity and tariff hikes. However, Hitachi Energy has bounced back since completing its QIP. Overall, NIFTY ENERGY underperformed modestly last week. However, it has significantly outperformed NIFTY 50 in March.

NIFTY FMCG

＄NIFTY FMCG – Playing Catchup

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	53185.1	53349.3	53014.9	53232.8
2025-03-25	53307.1	53601.6	52990.1	53131.3
2025-03-26	53229.4	53291.6	52872.3	52988.5
2025-03-27	53002.6	53475.1	52649.2	53276.6
2025-03-28	53198.8	54150.9	53198.8	53589.8

Weekly Performance: 1.1%

The NIFTY FMCG index closed 1.14% and beat the NIFTY 50 index. The outperformance led to it close some of the MTD and YTD performance gap against NIFTY 50. Some of the notable gainers include Radico Khaitan, Godrej Consumer Products, Tata Consumer Products, United Breweries and Marico, whose percentage changes are between 3.31% and 5.25% On the flipside, Pharmaceutical Hallmark, Nestle India, Colgate Palmolive and Dabur lost up to 1.87%. There were 11 advances and 4 declines in the index.

NIFTY IT

＄NIFTY IT – 8.5% underperformance vs NIFTY in March

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	36944.9	37469.9	36539.9	37217.1
2025-03-25	37542.4	38073.1	37406.0	37706.9
2025-03-26	37719.4	37929.4	37216.6	37336.7
2025-03-27	37168.1	37627.6	37160.0	37548.3
2025-03-28	37376.6	37540.8	36767.2	36886.1

Weekly Performance: 0.5%

The NIFTY IT index had a price change of 0.5% for the past week, slightly under-performing the NIFTY 50 which moved up 0.72% over the same duration. Coforge was the biggest gainer, up 4.68 per cent, followed closely by Persistent, which gained 4.52 per cent, while Mphasis and HCL Tech were others to gain – 2.89 per cent and 1.65 per cent respectively. TCS too made it to the list, with a 0.78% rise. On the other hand, the top laggards were LTTS, Infosys and Wipro. More than a quarter of the past 12 weeks have seen average daily returns in the bottom 10%, suggesting a somewhat rocky performance. Last week, advances outnumbered declines, 6 to 4.

Weak global tech stocks too played a trigger for the sluggishness at Indian IT. For example, NASDAQ, with heavy tech weightage was down by ~3% last week. Apart from this, weak numbers from bigger peers like Accenture and the US slowdown continue to be major headwinds for IT stocks. The NIFTY 50 has staged a strong recovery, having bounced back from YTD lows in March, but IT stocks are still languishing close to YTD lows. Consequently, they lagged the NIFTY 50 by 8.5% in March.

NIFTY PHARMA

＄NIFTY PHARMA – Among the worst performing indices on renewed tariff fears

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	21734.8	21807.8	21607.7	21771.2
2025-03-25	21840.4	21869.0	21427.8	21542.5
2025-03-26	21568.9	21594.4	21299.9	21360.6
2025-03-27	21247.1	21305.1	21042.8	21275.2
2025-03-28	21277.3	21313.3	20999.9	21137.4

Weekly Performance: -2.3%

The NIFTY PHARMA index lost 2.26% over the previous week. Among the top gainers in NIFTY PHARMA index were Ipca Lab up 6.74%, Glenmark, Abbott India and Mankind up 1.41 % to 0.4 %. Meanwhile, Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s, Granules, Lupin, and Natco Pharma, were among the big losers with losses of up to 5.36%. The index had 13 decliners and 7 advancers.
Of late, US tariffs have been the main concern for Indian pharma majors. The index fell last week because of renewed concern over pharma tariffs. Investors are increasingly selective in pharma, with less preference for export oriented firms and more for firms with non-US exposure.

NIFTY REALTY

＄NIFTY REALTY – Witnesses selling pressure

date	open	high	low	close
2025-03-24	873.8	883.0	867.0	876.0
2025-03-25	882.9	888.3	859.5	863.2
2025-03-26	863.4	879.1	849.0	852.0
2025-03-27	848.2	868.3	845.3	863.5
2025-03-28	866.3	868.8	848.5	851.3

Weekly Performance: -1.3%

The NIFTY REALTY index was down 0.2% last week, compared to a 0.72% increase in the NIFTY 50 index. Brigade and Lodha were the top gainers, the former and the latter accounting for 1.33% and 1.27% (in % change) respectively. Meanwhile, Mahindra Lifespaces, Raymond, and Sobha were the biggest laggards, with percentages of -11.88%, -5.33%, and -3.69% respectively.
NIFTY REALTY index is among the worst performing indices YTD. NIFTY REALTY index has lost almost 18% even as the NIFTY 50 has regained almost all lost ground and has turned flat in YTD terms. Anxiety about a slowdown in the number of new launches and higher inventory levels were among the big concerns.