For another day the Indian benchmark indices – Sensex and Nifty – could not hold on to their gains during the trading session and closed almost flat on Monday. Interestingly, since the beginning of June, the benchmark indices are moving in a narrow range but slowly losing their momentum on the bullish side.
Supported by gains in Asian markets, the Sensex opened higher and at one point of time was up by 314 points. However, sudden selling pressure wiped off all gains. At the close, it ended at 52,372.69, down by 13.50 points. The Nifty after recording an intra-day high of 15,789 closed at 15,692 with a gain of just 2.80 points.
However, mid-cap and small-cap indices continued their outperformance indicating the continuation of broad-based buying. The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.40 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.75 per cent.
On the sectoral front, the real estate shares gained the most. Weakness was visible in metal, media, information technology and FMCG shares as all four ended with losses.
In the index heavyweights HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS and Infosys dragged the market. However, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and UltraTech Cement continued to provide support with modest gains. On the back of poor earnings than expected, the owner of the DMart chain of stores, Avenue Supermarkets closed down by 0.94 per cent at Rs3,347.05
Real Estate zooms
On the back of reports suggesting that unsold inventory for builders and real estate developers in declining the shares of real estate companies continued its upward march. The BSE real estate share index climbed a 10-year high while Nifty Realty Index advanced 3.61 percent. Indiabulls Real Estate (up 14.89%), Sunteck Realty (up 4.91%), Hemisphere Properties India (up 3.8%), Oberoi Realty (up 3.35%), DLF (up 3.35%), Sobha (up 3.07%), Prestige Estates (up 2.55%), Godrej Properties (up 2.5%), The Phoenix Mills (up 2.25%) and Brigade Enterprises (up 1.94%) advanced.
Small Finance Bank’s rise
Shares of small finance banks (SFB) gained on Monday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved the reverse merger of the bank with its holding company, subject to market regulator SEBI’s approval. As per the RBI directive, an SFB can merge itself with its holding company (promoter) provided it has completed five years of banking operations. Getting approval from RBI, renewed buying interest in shares of Equitas Holdings and Ujjivan Financial Services. At the close, both shares ended with gains of 20 per cent.
