Sensex slips 168 pts; realty shares rally for 8th day

The domestic equity benchmarks traded with minor cuts in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered below the 22,450 mark. Realty shares extended gains for the eight consecutive trading sessions.

At 11:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 168.33 points or 0.23% to 73,844.79. The Nifty 50 index shed 38.35 points or 0.17% to 22,423.65.

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.82% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.96%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,539 shares rose and 1,064 shares fell. A total of 127 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted HSBC India manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) climbed to a 16-year high of 59.1 in March, from 56.9 in February.

The notable improvement in operating conditions reflected stronger growth of new orders, output and input stocks as well as renewed job creation.

The HSBC India PMI climbed to a 16-year high on the back of the strongest increases in output and new orders since October 2020, parallel to the second-sharpest upturn in input inventories in the history of the survey. Employment returned to positive territory and firms scaled up buying levels. There was a mild pick-up in cost pressures during March, but customer retention remained a priority for goods producers who raised their charges to the least extent in over a year, the press release stated.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index gained 1.62% 955.10. The index soared 15.18% in the eight trading sessions.

Prestige Estates Projects (up 5.31%), Oberoi Realty (up 3.76%), Godrej Properties (up 3.6%), Phoenix Mills (up 1.94%), Sobha (up 1.08%), Macrotech Developers (up 0.99%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.42%), Brigade Enterprises (up 0.14%) advanced.

On the other hand, DLF (down 1.07%), Sunteck Realty (down 0.54%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Atul Auto rose 1.39% after the company said that its total sales shed 0.82% in March 2024 to 3,128 units as against 3,154 units sold in March 2023.

Tata Technologies jumped 5.91% after the company announced the signing of an agreement to form a Joint Venture (JV) with the BMW Group for developing automotive software and business IT solutions.

Hero MotoCorp slipped 2.74%. The companys total sales fell 5.57% to 490,415 units in March 2024 as against 519,342 units sold in March 2023.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Tuesday as investors assessed economic data from South Korea and Australia. Investors are also awaiting for jobs data for further insight into the U.S. labour market.

U.S. stocks closed mostly lower on Monday to kick off the second quarter, pausing a rally that has recently brought all three indexes to fresh record highs.

US manufacturing grew for the first time in 1-1/2 years in March. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Monday that its manufacturing PMI increased to 50.3 last month, from 47.8 in February.

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