Sector watch: Realty index surges 3%, outperforms Sensex

HDIL, Sobha Developers and Godrej Properties among key movers

The realty index has outperformed the benchmark this afternoon. The BSE realty index is the top gainer - up 53 points or 3% at 1,833.66. The Sensex meanwhile is up 33 points at 18,868.56.

The surge in the realty index follows a 9% fall in the index in the last two weeks. The realty index had closed at 2,023.53 on March 18, 2013.

Avinash Gupta, Assistant Vice President Research Equity, Bonanza Portfolio Limited said, "the market had formed a bottom few days back, and realty index had not participated much in it. PLus the sector is a higher beta sector therefore the correction after the recent fall was expected. Some midcap shares, like Sobha Developers, which were undervalued have started to look attractive at the current juncture."

From the real estate pack, HDIL has surged 7.3% at Rs 49.65. The stock has managed to recover 12% from its all time low of Rs 43.65 which it touched on March 26, 2013. This was mainly due to the rating downgrade following a debt pile up and delay in its project. CARE downgraded two tranches of NCDs worth Rs 1,894 crore from 'BBB+' to 'D' grade and another worth Rs 200 crore from A3+ to 'D' grade. D means instruments that are in default or going to default soon.

Sobha Developers has soared 5% t0 Rs 367.25. Morgan Stanley said the share price of Sobha Developers is expected to rise in absolute terms over the next 30 days as the stock has traded off recently, making short-term valuation much more compelling. The investment bank added that the property developer continued to steadily scale up new launches and is on track to meet its Rs 20 billion target in new sales for 2013.

Godrej Properties is up 4.3% at Rs 552. According to reports, Godrej Properties Ltd has entered into a new joint venture (JV) project in Undri, Pune, to develop a 1.5 million sq. ft residential project. The project, spread over 31 acres, will offer almost 1.5 million sq. ft of saleable area, comprising one, two and three bedroom apartments.

Among other gainers are DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, Unitech and Anant Raj Estate - which have gained 2-3% each. On the other hand, Parsvnath Developers has slipped marginally to Rs 39.60.