Market Commentary - Mid-Session
Indices trade with minor gains; Ultratech Cement jumps over 5% As on : 02-Dec-24  13:37

The benchmark indices continued to trade with decent gains in the afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered above the 24,150 mark. Realty, consumer durables and healthcare shares advanced while banking stocks declined.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 21.84 points or 0.03% to 79,914.94. The Nifty 50 index added 30.95 points or 0.13% to 24,162.05.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.57% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rallied 0.54%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,340 shares rose and 1,654 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.

Gainers& Losers:

Ultratech Cement (up 5.30%), Grasim Industries (up 3.47%), Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (up 2.94%), Shriram Finance (up 2.24%) and JSW Steel (up 2.23%) were major Nifty gainers.

HDFC Life Insurance Company (down 1.85%), Cipla (down 1.84%), NTPC (down 0.83%), IndusInd Bank (down 0.82%), SBI Life Insurance Company (0.59%) were major Nifty losers.

Economy:

The HSBC India Manufacturing PMI showed a substantial improvement in the health of the sector during November, despite downward movements in most of its subcomponents. Positive demand trends contributed to sharp expansions in sales and output, though growth was somewhat restricted by competitive conditions and price pressures. The latest results showed that a quicker upturn in cost burdens sparked the steepest rise in selling prices in over 11 years

The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell from 57.5 in October to a joint 11-month low of 56.5 in November, signaling a softer improvement in the sector's health. However, the pace of growth remained above its long-term average.

Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist at HSBC, said: India recorded a 56.5 manufacturing PMI in November, down slightly from the prior month, but still firmly within expansionary territory. Strong broad-based international demand, evidenced by a four-month high in new export orders, fuelled the Indian manufacturing sector's continued growth. At the same time, however, the rate of output expansion is decelerating due to intensifying price pressures. Input prices for a variety of intermediate goods ' including chemicals, cotton, leather, and rubber ' rose in November, while output prices soared to an eleven-year high as rising input, labour, and transportation costs were passed on to consumers.

Meanwhile, India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves fell for an eighth consecutive week to hit a multi-month low of USD 656.582 billion in the week that ended on November 22, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) slipped 0.37%. The company said that its wholly owned subsidiary, ONGC Videsh has acquired 0.615% stake in offshore Azeri Chirag Gunashli (ACG) field in Azerbaijan from Equinor. The company has also acquired 0.737% stake of Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline company through its wholly owned subsidiary ONGC BTC.

TVS Motor rose 1.43% after the two-wheeler maker's total sales jumped 10.16% to 401,250 units in November 2024 as against 364,231 units sold in the month of November 2023.

Maruti Suzuki India added 1.16% after the company's total sales rose 10.39% to 181,531 units in November 2024 as against 164,439 units sold in November 2023.

Hero MotoCorp shed 0.81% after its total sales declined 6.36% to 459,805 units in November 2024 as compared with 491,050 units in November 2023.

Mahindra & Mahindra added 1.13% after the auto major's overall auto sales grew by 12.05% to 79,083 vehicles sold in November 2024 as against 70,576 vehicles sold in November 2023.

Global Market:

European shares traded mixed while most Asian stocks advanced on Monday after US shares rose on Friday as global markets enter a seasonally strong period.

Meanwhile, Chinese economic data pointed to a mixed picture. The country's factory activity expanded in November as the official manufacturing index picked up. However, the non-manufacturing sector slipped slightly. The value of new home sales fell last month from a year earlier to 363 billion yuan ($50 billion), reversing October gains. The stock market benchmark'CSI 300'closed Friday's session with gains of 1.14%.

US stock indices surged to record highs on Friday, driven by positive economic indicators and expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in December.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6% to a record high of 6,032.4 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4% to a peak of 44,910.65 points. The NASDAQ Composite rose 0.8% to 19,218.17 points, but remained below recent record highs.

Trump on Sunday threatened to impose '100% tariffs' on the BRICS bloc of countries, which includes China. Trump criticized the bloc's attempts to form its own currency and shift away from the U.S. dollar, threatening to cut the bloc off from U.S. trade over the move. He called for commitments to the dollar from the bloc.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News