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Stock market recommendations: According to Bajaj Broking Research, Lemon Treel Hotels and Electrosteel Castings are the top stock picks for today. Here’s its view on Nifty, Bank Nifty and the top stock picks for April 25, 2025:
Index View: NIFTY
Benchmark indices traded in a range with corrective bias on the Monthly expiry session on Thursday after surging nearly 9% over the preceding seven sessions, fueled by a mix of positive factors. Heavyweight stock buying, a weakening U.S. dollar, and declining crude oil prices boosted overall investor sentiment. The rally gained further traction with progress in trade talks with the U.S. and the extension of reciprocal tariff exemptions.Banking stocks were at the forefront of the gains as Bank Nifty rallied to a fresh all time high, lifted by easing of CPI data and an encouraging monsoon forecast—both of which reinforced expectations of a more aggressive rate-cutting cycle by the Reserve Bank of India.
Nifty during the current week extended up move and formed a fresh high for CY25 at 24,359. The index closed the Thursday session at 24,246 levels.
Index trends remain firmly positive, we expect the index to maintain a positive bias and head towards 24,550 being the 61.8% retracement of the entire decline (26277-21743) and then towards the December 2024 high of 24,850 in the upcoming weeks. Only a breach below Wednesday low (24120) will signal a pause in the current up trend.
The daily stochastic is placed at an overbought territory after a sharp 1,900-point rally in the past 8 sessions. Hence, some consolidation at higher levels cannot be ruled out. A breach below Wednesday’s low (24,120) can lead to some consolidation in the range of 24,350-23,800.
We revise the support base higher towards 23,800 levels, being the Monday’s gap area and the recent breakout area. Index sustaining above the same will keep the short-term bias positive and dips should be viewed as buying opportunities. Stock specific action will continue to remain under focus as we progress through the Q4 earnings season.
NIFTY BANK

Stock Recommendations:
Lemon Tree Hotels
Buy in the range of Rs 143-146

The stock has generated a breakout above a falling supply line joining highs of January and February 2025 signaling resumption of up move and offers fresh entry opportunity. The stock is also sustaining above the short- and long-term moving averages
We expect the stock to maintain positive bias and head towards 162 levels in the medium term being the previous major high of January 2025.
Electrosteel Castings
Buy in the range of Rs 108.00-111.00

The share price of Electrosteel Castings has generated a breakout above the last 2 months range (108-88) signaling reversal of the corrective trend and also closed above the 50 days EMA.
The daily 14 period RSI is in uptrend thus supports the positive bias. We expect the stock to head towards 128 levels in the medium term being measuring implication of the last 2 months range breakout (108-88).
Disclaimer: The opinions, analyses and recommendations expressed herein are those of brokerage and do not reflect the views of The Times of India. Always consult with a qualified investment advisor or financial planner before making any investment decisions.

The Army has retaliated to speculative firing on some Indian posts by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday night, military sources told NDTV. The security forces “effectively responded” to the Pakistan Army, they said, adding that there were no casualties.

“There were incidents of small arms firing at some places along the LoC initiated by Pakistan last night. The firing was effectively responded to,” sources said.

The exchange of fire took place days after a terror attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam sparked a new crisis between the two neighbours.

India has hit Pakistan with a series of strict measures, including expulsion of Pakistani military attaches, suspension of the over six-decade-old Indus Water Treaty and immediate shutting down of the Attari land-transit post, in view of the “cross-border links” to Tuesday’s Pahalgam terror attack, that left 26 people, including a Nepali national, dead.

India on Thursday also formally notified Pakistan that the decision to indefinitely suspend the Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960, comes into effect immediately.

A letter from the Union Ministry of Water Resources to Syed Ali Murtuza, Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources of Pakistan, said, “The obligation to honour a treaty in good faith is fundamental to a treaty. However, what we have seen instead is sustained cross-border terrorism by Pakistan targeting the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.

ALSO READ | India’s 7 Big Steps Against Pakistan After Pahalgam Terror Attack

It also mentioned that Pakistan has consistently ignored India’s efforts to work out certain issues that have cropped up with “fundamental changes in the circumstances that have taken place since the Treaty was executed”.

“These changes include significantly altered population demographics, the need to accelerate the development of clean energy and other changes in the assumptions underlying the sharing of waters under the Treaty,” the letter, which came shortly after Pakistan threatened to suspend all agreements between the two countries, including the Simla pact of 1972, which validates the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, read.

India said in addition, consistent cross-border terrorism has given rise to “uncertainties’ that have “directly impeded India’s full utilization of its rights under the Treaty”.

“Furthermore, apart from other breaches committed by it, Pakistan has refused to respond to India’s request to enter into negotiations as envisaged under the Treaty and is thus in breach of the Treaty,” the letter read.

The decision to put the Indus water agreement on hold was announced on Wednesday after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee of Security chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has vowed that India will “identify, track and punish” every terrorist and their “backers” who were behind the Pahalgam attack.

NEW DELHI: In what could be a decisive battle against Left-wing extremism ahead of the March 2026 deadline to eliminate the scourge, nearly 5,000 security personnel are closing in on the ‘core’ area of CPI (Maoist) spanning the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Maharashtra, having “surrounded” 300 Naxalites, including top leaders belonging to the dreaded People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army and Battalion No. 1.
Sources in Chhattisgarh govt said the “largest ever” anti-Naxal operation along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border has been on since Wednesday, with five Naxalites killed so far, three bodies recovered, and several Naxal hideouts busted.
The “decisive” joint operation is being undertaken by multiple elite units.
In a first, IAF choppers deployed to airdrop forces deep into forested areas
These include CRPF and its elite CoBRA battalion, Chhattisgarh’s District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF), Bastar Fighters, Maharashtra’s C-60 Commandos, and Andhra Pradesh’s Greyhounds, based on intelligence inputs pointing to the presence of several top commanders – including Hidma, responsible for several big Naxal attacks in the Abujmarh region; Deva; and Damodar – in the area along with over 150 hardcore Naxals from the PLGA and Battalion No. 1. Senior officers, including CRPF DG G P Singh, are at the site to oversee the operation.
For the first time, Indian Air Force helicopters have been deployed to strategically air-drop forces deep into forested areas, marking a significant shift in counter-insurgency tactics. “The primary objective is to capture or neutralise top Naxal functionaries such as Hidma, responsible for several deadly Maoist attacks in Abujmarh rgion; Deva, and Damodar,” said a senior police officer.
Hidma is regarded as the mastermind behind Naxal operations in South Bastar and is wanted for multiple deadly attacks. Deva, another senior commander, is also a key figure in Naxal hierarchy. Reports suggest Damodar and other top insurgents may also be present in the region. Capturing or eliminating these leaders is seen as crucial to dismantling the Naxal command structure.
A CRPF source said the joint operation to crush the last Maoist bastion is carefully timed ahead of start of monsoon season, when the deep forests usually become inaccessible. “This will ensure Maoists are eliminated well within the March 2026 deadline,” said an officer.
The joint operation focuses on freeing the dense forest regions of Venkatapuram mandal’s Veerabhadram, Tadapala, Nichhenna, Wajedu mandal, and Morumuru from the hold of Naxals. Thanks to sustained counter-Naxal operations over the past few years, forces like CRPF, in coordination with the state police concerned, have been moving deeper into what were once ‘core’ Naxal areas and setting up forward operating bases.
The officer shared that over 5,000 security personnel are involved in the extensive operation, “which has reportedly surrounded over 300 Naxalites”. Intermittent exchange of fire continues, and forces are working on encircling the remaining Left-wing extremists. “Intelligence suggests that senior Naxal commanders from Battalion No. 1 have been surrounded, raising hopes of major breakthroughs,” said a senior officer of the Chhattisgarh police.
Security forces have cordoned off the entire area and are advancing deeper into the jungle to exert pressure on Naxals, said an officer.

The New York Times has been pulled up by the US government for its reportage of the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, in which 26 people, including a foreign national were shot dead after being asked to prove their allegiance to Islam.

The attack, for which a Pakistan-based terror group The Resistance Front – an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba – claimed responsibility, was reported by The New York Times as a “militant” attack. An introduction to the report also said that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the “shooting” a “terror attack”.

NYT CALLED OUT OVER TERROR REPORTAGE

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States government took to social media to publicly call out The New York Times article over its news report, describing it as being “removed from reality”. The NYT headline read ‘At Least 24 Tourists Gunned Down by Militants in Kashmir’.

“This was a terrorist attack, plain and simple,” noted the US government, adding that “Whether it’s India or Israel, when it comes to terrorism, the NYT is removed from reality.”

The post also shared a photo with the correction made on NYT’s behalf, saying, “Hey, NYT, we fixed it for you.”

Hey, @nytimes we fixed it for you. This was a TERRORIST ATTACK plain and simple.

Whether it’s India or Israel, when it comes to TERRORISM the NYT is removed from reality. pic.twitter.com/7PefEKMtdq

— House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority (@HouseForeignGOP) April 23, 2025

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MILITANCY AND TERRORISM

Militancy usually refers to an armed rebellion from within a State in order to achieve a political or social outcome, whereas terrorism has an external context, where a calculated use of violence creates a climate of fear in a particular geography in order to wage asymmetrical warfare against a foreign nation to destabilize the region towards a larger intent or objective.

India, in a statement on Wednesday, said that a top-level meeting on security chaired by the prime minister noted that “In the briefing to the Cabinet Committee on Security, the cross-border linkages of the terrorist attack were brought out. It was noted that this attack came in the wake of the successful holding of elections in the Union Territory and its steady progress towards economic growth and development.”

‘DOUBLE-STANDARDS’

The Lashkar-e-Taiba or LeT, from which its shadow outfit The Resistance Front stems, is a UN-designated terrorist organisation, which makes its terror credentials recognised globally. Yet, a large swathe of the western media, which President Trump refers to as “legacy media”, often report incidents of terror as “shootings” or “militant” incidents, according to analysts.

Pakistan has, for decades, carried out “cross-border terrorism” against India and claimed it to be the act of “non-State actors” – a classic case of proxy warfare. India has on numerous occasions shared evidence with Pakistan about terrorists coming from areas under its illegal occupation and control, but Islamabad has never cooperated with New Delhi.

Analysts have often pinpointed the “double-standards” in the western media’s coverage of Kashmir. While most of the “legacy media” in the West report Russia’s moves in Ukraine as “an invasion”, the same media reports Kashmir as a “dispute” and not Pakistan’s invasion of Indian territory.

THE INVASION OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR

In 1947, during Partition of India, two nations were formed – India, which chose to remain secular, and Pakistan, which was created on the ideology of the Two-Nation Theory – which demanded a separate nation for Muslims. Tens of millions of Muslims had rejected the idea of Pakistan and its founder Jinnah, and chose to stay in a secular India. But, by then, the lines were drawn.

Pakistan thereby became the first nation in the world to be formed on the basis not of a common language or ethnicity, but on that of religion.

At the time of Independence, the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which includes the Northern Areas – now called Gilgit-Baltistan – joined the Union of India by signing the instrument of accession. But Pakistan, which was formed on the ideology of the two-nation theory claimed that the people of Jammu and Kashmir – a Muslim-majority state, should ‘ideally’ belong to Pakistan because of that argument.

But when Karachi (then Capital of Pakistan), saw that Jammu and Kashmir had merged with India, Muhammad Ali Jinnah – the founder of Pakistan – orchestrated an invasion by sending tribesmen who fueled widespread violence in Kashmir. He then ordered troops of the newly-formed Pakistan Army to invade Kashmir and forcibly take it over. This led to an armed conflict between India and Pakistan. By the time the Indian forces could reach Kashmir, Pakistan had invaded and illegally occupied the regions we now refer to as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir – which includes the Gilgit-Baltistan region.
 

File photo of Sunil Gavaskar© AFP

SRINAGAR: An all-party meeting convened Thursday by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Pahalgam massacre adopted a resolution condemning the barbaric act and supporting the measures taken by Union govt to bring the perpetrators to justice. The resolution termed the brutal killings an “assault on Kashmiriyat and the idea of India”
While expressing shock and grief over the loss of 26 innocent lives in the terror attack, the resolution also hailed the “supreme sacrifice” of pony guide Syed Adil Hussain Shah, and lauded the Kashmiri people for their “extraordinary display of moral and material support to all the tourists” across the Valley.
The resolution called upon all sections of society across the country to maintain peace and not give in to provocations, while urging govts of other states and UTs to ensure Kashmiris residing or travelling there were “safeguarded against any form of harassment, discrimination, or intimidation”.
At the outset, a two-minute silence was observed by all the participants to pay tributes to the victims.
Reading out the resolution at a press conference after the all-party meeting, Omar said: “We unequivocally condemn in the strongest possible terms the heinous, inhumane attack in Pahalgam that targeted and killed innocent civilians. Such cowardly acts of brutality against peaceful citizens have no place in society and are a direct assault on the values of Kashmiriyat and the idea of India, which have long been a symbol of unity, peace and harmony in the region.”
“We stand unwavering in our commitment to support all efforts in bringing these perpetrators to justice. In doing so, we affirm that no act of terror can ever weaken our resolve or extinguish our indomitable spirit,” the resolution said.
Extending condolences to the families that have suffered loss, the resolution also saluted the “valour and selflessness” of the slain pony guide. “He is a true face of Kashmiriyat and Kashmir hospitality,” Omar said.
The Kashmiri people’s “resolute unity in condemning the recent attack” and the spontaneous, peaceful demonstrations across J&K exemplified their “unwavering commitment to peace, communal harmony and the rule of law”, and reaffirmed their “collective resolve to foster mutual respect, uphold constitutional values, and work collaboratively for the prosperity and stability of J&K”, the resolution further stated.