Market Commentary - Mid-Session
Sensex slides 494 pts; realty shares in demand; VIX soars 10.51% As on : 16-Dec-24  12:32

The key equity indices continued to extend losses in early afternoon trade. The Nifty slipped below the 24,650 level. Realty shares advanced after declining in the past two trading sessions.

At 12:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 494.27 points or 0.60% to 81,638.85. The Nifty 50 index fell 141.30 points or 0.57% to 24,627.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.40% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.27%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,207 shares rose and 1,784 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The annual inflation rate based on the All India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is 1.89% (provisional) for November 2024, compared to November 2023. The positive inflation rate in November 2024 is primarily due to an increase in prices of food articles, food products, other manufactured goods, textiles, machinery, and equipment.

The Food Index, consisting of 'food articles' from the primary articles group and 'food products' from the manufactured products group, decreased from 201.2 in October 2024 to 200.3 in November 2024. The rate of inflation based on the WPI Food Index decreased from 11.59% in October 2024 to 8.92% in November 2024.

The HSBC Flash India Composite Output Index registered a value of 60.7 at the end of December 2024. This marked an increase from the final reading of 58.6 in November, indicating the strongest growth rate observed in four months. The rise was driven by faster growth in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

The HSBC Flash India Manufacturing PMI stood at 57.4 in December as compared with 56.5 in November 2024, this pointed to an improvement in manufacturing sector conditions that was substantial and stronger than seen on average across the series history.

The HSBC Flash India Services PMI business was at 60.8 in December 2024 as against 58.4 in November 2024.

Meanwhile, India's foreign exchange reserves dropped by $3.235 billion to $654.857 billion, a five-month low, for the week ended December 6, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revealed on Friday.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, decreased by $3.228 billion to $565.623 billion for the week ended December 6, 2024, as per the data.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 10.51% to 14.43. The Nifty 26 December 2024 futures were trading at 24,680, at a premium of 53 points as compared with the spot at 24,627.

The Nifty option chain for the 26 December 2024 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 110.7 lakh contracts at the 26,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 78.8 lakh contracts was seen at 24,100 strike price.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index rallied 2.73% to 1,114.70. The index shed 0.85% in the past two trading session.

Oberoi Realty (up 4.26%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 3.92%), Macrotech Developers (up 3.31%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 2.86%), Phoenix Mills (up 2.62%), DLF (up 1.88%), Godrej Properties (up 1.35%), Brigade Enterprises (up 1.27%), Sobha (up 0.44%) advanced.

On the other hand, Raymond (down 0.14%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

SBEC Sugar was locked in 10% upper circuit after the company said that it has received 'consent to establish (CTE)' for expansion of the plant capacity to 10,000 tons of cane crushed per day (TCD).

Dixon Technologies (India) rallied 4.52% after the company signed a binding term sheet for setting up a new manufacturing joint venture with Vivo Mobile India.

Afcons Infrastructure jumped 2.94% after the company received a letter of acceptance (LoA) from Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Company for construction Package BH-05 of the Bhopal Metro Rail Project of Rs 1,006.74 crore.

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