Markets eke out modest gains; all eyes on US Fed

Benchmark Sensex gave up early gains to close flat today after a rally in realty and auto counters was offset by foreign funds retreating to the sidelines ahead of US Fed's policy meet.

The 30-share index rose over 150 points in morning trade to recapture the 30,000-mark, hitting a high of 30,069.24, but later lost momentum to fall to 29,804.72.

It finally ended at 29,921.18, up 2.78 points, or 0.01 per cent.

The broader NSE Nifty shuttled between 9,352.55 and 9,269.90, before ending 9.75 points or 0.10 per cent higher at 9,313.80.

Brokers said markets are expected to be range-bound as investors are awaiting the outcome of US Fed's two-day meeting, as well as results of some more bluechips.

"Market regained from day’s low and ended flat supported by auto stocks with gains in April month sales.

"However, earnings growth is needed to sustain the premium valuation. On the global front, the announcement of Fed policy tomorrow is likely to add some volatility to the market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign funds sold net shares worth Rs 1,150.45 crore last Friday, as per provisional figures issued by stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, India's manufacturing sector grew for the fourth month in a row in April on surge in new business orders but the pace of expansion was same as the previous month and job growth moderated, a monthly survey showed today.

Auto stocks, led by Maruti Suzuki, hogged the limelight throughout the session, largely on the back of strong sales data for April.

Shares of the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India rose by nearly 3 per cent, adding Rs 5,442 crore to its market valuation, after the company posted a 19.5 per cent jump in total sales for April 2017.

Hero MotoCorp gained 1.22 per cent, Bajaj Auto rose 1.28 per cent while M&M inched up 0.48 per cent.
Stocks of realty and housing finance companies too recorded handsome gains after the much-awaited Real Estate Act came into force from May 1, even though only 13 states and UTs have so far notified rules.

Other index gainers included ONGC (3.14 per cent), HDFC Ltd (2.99 per cent), GAIL (1.46 per cent), Adani Ports (1.16 per cent), TCS (0.87 per cent) and Infosys (0.17 per cent).

However, Lupin fell 2.49 per cent, Bharti Airtel 2 per cent, Reliance 1.71 per cent, Sun Pharma 1.59 per cent, NTPC 1.40 per cent, Tata Motors 1.34 per cent and L&T 1.06 per cent.

Overseas, Asian markets ended mixed, with China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.35 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.33 per cent. Japan's Nikkei ended 0.70 per cent higher.

European shares were higher in late morning deals as investors awaited the upcoming French presidential vote.

London's FTSE was up 0.43 per cent, France's Paris CAC 30 rose 0.24 per cent and Germany's Frankfurt gained 0.07 per cent.

Back home, the BSE Mid-Cap index was higher by 0.38 per cent, while the small-cap index rose 0.31 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral and industry indices, realty gained the maximum at 1.99 per cent, followed by consumer durables 1.21 per cent, oil&gas 1.05 per cent, PSU 0.64 per cent, IT 0.53 per cent and auto 0,.53 per cent.

The market breadth remained negative as 1,518 stocks closed in red, while 1,355 ended higher and 177 ruled steady.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4,062.51 crore, lower than turnover of Rs 4,336.14 crore registered on last Friday.