India’s equity market closed moderately higher on Thursday, April 26. Indices drew support from strong quarterly earnings of several companies. However, investors were cautious ahead of the expiry of derivative contracts. The news flow was positive as US trading floors showed mixed performance, though upbeat sentiment prevailed. European indices are in positive territory, while Asian benchmarks moved higher. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 advanced 0.45% to 10,617.80, while the BSE Sensex finished 0.62% higher at 34,713.60. By 10:36 GMT, the USD/INR currency pair traded down 0.17% to 66.805, while EUR/INR inched down 0.06% to 81.3322. The 10-year government bond yield widened to 7.783%. India’s third-largest software exporter Wipro sank 2.02% on weaker-than-expected (INR 21.32 bn) net profit in Q4, which totaled only INR 18.03 bn (USD 270 mn), and downbeat earnings in Q1. The company expects revenue from the IT services division to reach INR 2.02-2.07 bn compared to INR 2.06 bn in Q4. Meanwhile, Yes Bank spiked 8.4% on a 29% increase in Q1 net profit. The bank’s metric totaled INR 11.79 bn (USD 176.50 mn), outpacing analysts’ expectations of INR 10.99 bn. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services rose 1.0% due to a sharp increase in Q4 profit. The daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex has been consolidating near the upper line of Bollinger bands, while the Slow Stochastic Oscillator has long been in overbought territory. In view of the above, a downturn is possible in the short term. $SENSEX, S&P BSE SENSEX INDEX / D