Sensex, Nifty50 end flat amid volatility: Auto, realty stocks and PSU banks rise

• India’s equity markets ended flat on Monday, the first trading day of FY24 after gaining during initial trade.
• Auto, realty and PSU bank sectoral indices rose, while oil & gas, IT and metal indices declined.
• Four out of five top gainers on the Nifty50 index were auto companies.

India’s equity markets ended flat on Monday, the first trading day of FY24 after gaining during initial trade. Auto, realty and PSU bank sectoral indices rose, while oil & gas, IT and metal indices declined.

Both the benchmark indices ended 0.2% higher – while the 30-stock Sensex gained 115 points to close at 59,106, the 50-stock Nifty50 closed 38 points higher at 17,398.

“While intraday profit booking was observed in a few oil & gas and metal stocks, the auto and PSU banks indices among sectors both increased by over 1%,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (retail), Kotak Securities.

Top gainers and losers on Nifty50

Source: NSE, as on April 3, 2023

"Investors were of the view that the easing price pressure would provide the central bank with leeway to pause the rate hike. However, the surprise production cut by OPEC+ has fuelled concerns about inflationary pressure, which may prompt central banks to remain hawkish," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Earlier on Friday, markets rallied nearly 2% led by bluechip giants like Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Motors among others.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is also scheduled to announce the outcome of its rate hike deliberations – while analysts had earlier expected a 25 basis point hike, the economists at SBI Research underlined that there could be a pause amidst a banking sector crisis in the US and Europe.

Global markets steady, crude oil prices surge on OPEC+ cuts

Markets in the US also rallied on Friday, with the Dow Jones closing 1.26% higher while S&P 500 gained 1.44%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 1.74%.

Asian markets were mostly positive on Monday, except KOSPI which was down 0.18% while Hang Seng ended flat. Shanghai Composite was up 0.71%, followed by Nikkei 225 which gained 0.52% and Taiwan Weighted which was 0.12% in the green.

Crude oil prices rose dramatically on Monday amid oil production cuts by OPEC+. Brent crude was back above the $80 level per barrel after falling to under $70 earlier last week.

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