India Stocks: Metal stocks drive Indian shares higher

Gokaldas Exports

29/08/2023 11:47

(Updated at 3:30 p.m. IST)
    By Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant
       BENGALURU, Aug 29 (Reuters) - 
    Indian shares ended marginally higher on Tuesday, driven by
gains in metal stocks on expectations of demand recovery in top
consumer China.
  
    The Nifty 50  .NSEI  index settled 0.19% higher at 19,342.65
at 3:30 p.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex  .BSESN  gained 0.12%
to 65,075.82.
    Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with
Nifty metal index  .NIFTYMET  and realty index  .NIFTYREAL 
leading with a 1.3% and 1.7% rise, respectively. 
        Metal stocks have gained 1.5% so far this week after
China announced 
    measures
     to support its ailing property sector. 
  
        The metals sector is expected to benefit over fiscal
2023-2025 from a gradual economic recovery in China, rising
private capex and recovery in automobile and realty sectors,
analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said in a note. 
  
        India's benchmark indexes have fallen over 3% from
record highs hit in July amid the rise in inflation as well as
valuation concerns and analysts expect the markets to remain
subdued in the near term.
  
    However, the more domestically-focussed small-caps
 .NIFSMCP100  and mid-caps  .NIFMDCP100  were up 0.3% and 0.5%,
respectively, continuing to outperform the blue-chip benchmarks.
    "New money, mainly retail money has come into the mid-cap
and small-cap and has powered the ongoing rally, which has come
after a two-year period of consolidation," said Samrat Dasgupta,
chief executive at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.
    Among individual stocks, heavyweight Reliance Industries
 RELI.NS  fell 1% after the company's annual general meeting
offered little clues to investors on the listing of its retail
and telecom units. 
    Gokaldas Exports  GOKL.NS  surged over 13% over a deal to
buy Dubai-based apparel maker Atraco Group for $55 million.
    The realty index was powered by a 5.4% gain in Indiabulls
Real Estate  INRL.NS  shares after it appointed a new COO.

 (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru;
editing by Eileen Soreng)
 ((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463;))