Automakers drive India’s blue-chips higher in first session of 2025
Live MintBy Bharath Rajeswaran Jan 1 - India's benchmark indexes rose on the first day of 2025, led by auto stocks that were boosted by a rise in monthly sales for top carmaker Maruti Suzuki and peer Mahindra & Mahindra. India's blue-chip indexes rose to record highs early in 2024 but slowing corporate earnings and an exodus of foreign funds curtailed annual gains to about 8.5%, the least among major global peers, and pushed the indexes into correction territory. In 2025, the markets will be shaped by corporate earnings, India's upcoming federal budget, the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's administration as well as the Federal Reserve's rate trajectory, Ross Maxwell, global strategy operations lead at trading platform VT Markets, said. Among individual stocks, two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto and tractor maker Escorts Kubota lost 0.7% and 1%, respectively, after posting a drop in December sales.