News Wrap | Asian Markets Mixed; Sensex, Nifty Decline; Insurance Stocks Down

Good evening, and welcome to Business Hook’s daily news podcast, where we bring you a roundup of the day’s top business stories. I’m Avni Raja, and today is Thursday, the twenty-eighth of November, 2024.

Let’s start with Asian markets. It was a mixed session across Asia as investors reacted to a surprise rate cut by South Korea’s central bank. The Bank of Korea reduced its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 3 per cent, defying expectations of a rate pause. This move resulted in South Korea’s Kospi closing almost unchanged. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei gained half a per cent, while China’s CSI 300 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined during the session.

Back home, Indian equities failed to hold their opening gains and ended the day with sharp losses. Both the Sensex and the Nifty slipped by one and a half per cent each. The Sensex closed just above 79,000 after a fall of almost 1,200 points. The Nifty was down by 360 points, ending below 24,000. Of the fifty constituents of the Nifty, 46 declined, while only four managed to advance in Thursday’s trade. Adani Group’s flagship company, Adani Enterprises, was the biggest gainer of the day, up by over one and a half per cent.

Staying with Nifty constituents, the top losers on the index on Thursday were from the insurance sector. While SBI Life slipped by over five per cent, HDFC Life was down by around four per cent. The sharp decline in insurance stocks was driven by reports citing sources that the insurance regulator, IRDAI, has asked insurers to limit business generated via banks to 50%. The reports suggested this was due to the regulator’s concerns about the rising dependence of insurers on banks for business. However, HDFC Life later issued a clarification, calling the report ‘inaccurate.’

A big global headline from the commodity space—Poland's central bank has become the world’s largest buyer of gold, purchasing 100 tonnes of the precious metal. According to a Bloomberg report, Poland’s central bank governor, Adam Glapiński, is leading this effort to strengthen the country’s financial position. Explaining the move, Glapiński said last month that Poland was diversifying its reserves to better weather volatility. He added that the Polish economy needed to reduce volatility, and for that, it needed an asset with zero correlation to stocks. This aggressive gold purchase by Poland is part of a growing trend across Eastern Europe, as countries in the region prepare for increased economic uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

And the big political story back home—Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Hemant Soren has taken the oath as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand for the fourth time. His oath-taking ceremony was attended by several key leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Rahul Gandhi from the Congress, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, and West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In the Jharkhand elections, the JMM-led alliance won a huge mandate, securing 56 of the 81 seats in the state assembly. The BJP-led NDA managed to secure just 24 seats.

With that, it’s a wrap on this edition of the Business Hook News Wrap podcast. We will be back tomorrow with the next edition of our podcast. You can also check out the Business Hook YouTube channel for the top business developments of the day.