Indian equities ended the volatile session marginally higher on Monday. Auto and realty stocks gained the most followed by banks, financials and energy stocks. On the other hand, IT and pharma stocks fell the most.
At the close, the 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex ended flat at 29.41 points, or 0.05% at 60,077.88 while the broad based NSE Nifty closed flat with a gain of 1.90 points or 0.01%, at 17,855.10 with 31 components posting rise.
Major gainers in the 30-share index were Maruti Suzuki (6.53%), Mahindra & Mahindra (4.14%), ONGC (2.94%), Bajaj Auto (2.77%), NTPC (2.09%), Reliance Industries (1.70%), HDFC Bank (1.43%) and Ultratech Cement (1.26%).
On the other hand, HCL Technologies (4.58%), Tech Mahindra (3.30%), Bajaj Finserv (2.64%), Infosys (2.35%), Larsen & Toubro (1.58%), Nestle (1.32%), Hindustan Unilever (0.98%) and TCS (0.89%) were the major losers in the Sensex.
Market Breadth was mixed with 1,635 advances against 1,718 declines.
Global cues were positive as China's central bank assured of ample liquidity and promised a healthy development in the country’s real estate market amidst stress among real estate developers. On the other hand, USD 1.2 billion infrastructure package has been pushed back by House of Representatives, putting pressure on the government to extend financing. European markets gained after Germany's elections point to only a slight shift to the left in the next government.
Auto sector was in top gear after Govt clears incentives worth Rs.260,580 million offered under the PLI scheme. The PLI scheme is expected to bring in new investments worth more than Rs 425,000 million in five years and incremental production of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore.
Further, Ratings agency Icra revised its 2021-22 real GDP growth estimate for India to 9% from the earlier 8.5% on back of widening coverage of COVID-19 vaccines, healthy advance estimates of kharif (summer) crop and faster government spending. It expects the second half of the fiscal year to have brighter prospects.
Commenting on the market outlook, Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, "Markets are likely to consolidate at higher levels given the sharp run-up in the past few weeks. Also markets are increasingly witnessing rotation from outperforming sectors to under-valued stocks. This week lot of macro data points would be released viz. PMI data across US, Europe and China along with US and UK's GDP data and Japan’s MPC and keep the markets busy. Also, we might experience some volatility ahead of monthly F&O expiry on 30th September."
