Indian Indices End Flat; Realty And IT Stocks Witness Buying

Indian share markets fluctuated between minor gains and losses in today's lackluster session and ended on a flat note.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 14 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended up by 15 points.

SGX Nifty was trading at 11,464, up by 9 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.6%. The BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.5%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and IT sector witnessing buying interest.

Telecom stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended higher by 0.8%. The Nikkei ended up by 0.7%.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive start for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 153 points (up 1.4%), while Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures are trading up by 190 points (up 0.7%).

Wall Street indices fell on Thursday, losing over 1%, amid a continued sell-off in technology stocks.

The rupee is trading at 73.54 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.6% at Rs 51,465 per 10 grams.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Vodafone Idea was among the top buzzing stocks today after reports stated that the company was planning to raise Rs 350 billion.

As per reports, Vodafone Idea has cleared the appointment of merchant bankers for data center sale. It wants to sell both the fiber and data center assets by the end of the year.

The company will engage with more players for the sale of fiber assets. Brookfield and KKR are already in contention, with Brookfield being the front runner, the report added.

In news from the IT sector, shares of Wipro and Tata Elxsi hit their respective 52-week highs on the BSE today on expectations of strong earnings growth in the current quarter (July-September).

Wipro rallied 4% to Rs 298.30, surpassing its previous high of Rs 290.65, hit on July 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, Tata Elxsi gained 3% to Rs 1,300 in intra-day trade today surpassing its previous high of Rs 1,274.45, touched yesterday.

The stock of the Tata group company was trading higher for the fifth straight day, rallying as much as 13% during this period.

Moving on to news from the automobile sector, passenger vehicle sales grew in strong double digits for the first time in nearly two years as good retail demand increased production helped manufacturers dispatch more vehicles in August.

Reports state that strong pulls from the rural pockets, a slight revival in urban markets, festive buying, and easier finance schemes helped revive volumes during the month.

As per the data available with industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), as many as 215,916 passenger vehicles were sold last month, which is an increase of 14.2% compared to 189,129 units sold in the year-ago period.

The wholesale numbers exclude those of Tata Motors which is reporting its data to SIAM on a quarterly basis since the start of the fiscal.

Utility vehicles, which SUVs are a part of, grew by 15% during August, commanding an unchanged share of 37%.

Wholesale volumes of two-wheelers also increased by 3% to 1,559,665 units in August. While demand for motorcycles rose 10.1% to 1,032,476 units, that for scooters fell 12.3% to 456,848 units.

Sales of three-wheelers in the period under review fell 75.3% to 14,534 units.

Sales of commercial vehicles (CVs) were not shared by SIAM for August. Tata Motors, which is one of the top two CV makers in the country, has stopped sharing wholesale data even as its competitors such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, and VE Commercial Vehicles share the data freely.

Speaking of the automobile sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Auto index for the month of September since inception.

The BSE auto index ended in the red on only 3 out of the last 15 years for the month of September. That's a success ratio of 80%.

The auto index has entered the greed phase in September 2019 and will stay there until December 2021. This means there is still a lot of fuel left for auto stocks.