Sensex ends rangebound session lower, Nifty fails to hold 10,450; Realty, Midcap shine
Benchmark indices opened the day at fresh record highs, but immediately wiped out those gains and remained rangebound for rest of the day. The consolidation was expected after a rally due to BJP winning in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.
The 30-share BSE Sensex close down 59.36 points at 33,777.38 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 19 points at 10,444.20, after hitting fresh all-time high of 33,956.31 and 10,494.45, respectively.
Experts expect the consolidation to continue for couple of weeks due to lack of domestic and global cues. The trading volumes at FII desk would also be low due to Christmas and year-end holiday.
“We continue to hold a cautious outlook on the markets overall and believe prices have run up ahead of fundamentals and would not recommend entering fresh longs at this juncture,” Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha said.
The broader markets outperformed benchmark indices as the Nifty Midcap was up 0.6 percent. About 941 shares advanced against 589 declining shares on the NSE.
Realty was the biggest gainer among sectoral indices, rising 3 percent. Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL, DLF and Phoenix Mills rallied 4-6 percent.
Unitech gained 5 percent after National Company Law Tribunal adjourned Corporate Affairs Ministry’s plea against the company. Earlier the Supreme Court had stayed NCLT order permitting Corporate Affairs Ministry to take over Unitech board.
HDFC Bank lost shine in late trade, falling nearly a percent after hitting a record high. The private sector lender said the board of directors approved fund raising up to Rs 24,000 crore through preferential issue to promoter HDFC, and QIP.
Maruti Suzuki also saw profit booking after hitting a life high and crossing the Rs 10,000-mark. Kotak Institutional Equities has maintained add rating on the stock, with increased target price at Rs 10,300 (from Rs 9,300 per share) as company may enjoy a golden run over next 3-5 years and margin may surpass historical peaks.
Reliance Industries, HDFC, Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HPCL, M&M and Dr Reddy’s Labs among others, were down 1-2 percent while Infosys, L&T, HUL, Hero Motocorp, Wipro and Hindalco gained over a percent.
ONGC was up 1.5 percent as Macquarie has initiated coverage with Outperform rating with target price of Rs 290, implying potential upside of 60 percent on rising oil prices.
Morepen Laboratories surged 20 percent on getting approval from US FDA for bulk drug Montelukast Sodium. Strides Shasun was up 2.3 percent on acquiring controlling stake in Trinity Pharma, South Africa for Rs 28 crore.
Jet Airways was up 2.5 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that the airline company is in initial talks to raise capital from Air France- KLM & Delta.
Dredging Corporation gained 7 percent as sources told CNBC-TV18 that the government sought names of asset valuer for valuation of company’s assets and is looking for strategic stake sale in company.
Religare Enterprises jumped 5 percent after Edelweiss Financial will buy Religare’s securities business which includes securities & commodities broking & depository participants services.
Karur Vysya Bank was up 5 percent after KR Choksey has initiated coverage with Buy rating on the stock, citing likely earnings growth in FY19 and likely candidate for acquisition by bigger bank. Bank of India fell 4 percent after RBI put it under Prompt Corrective Action Framework.
NCC, Jain Irrigation, Fortis Healthcare, Ramco Cement, Heritage Goods, Gokaldas Exports, Future Consumer, Mandhana Retail and VIP Clothing were up 1-15 percent while PNB, Sintex Industries, Rain Industries and PC Jeweller were down 1-4 percent.
On the global front, European stocks were mildly lower at the time of writing this article while Asian markets ended mixed.
