Sensex Ends Marginally Higher; Realty And Automobile Stocks Witness Buying

Indian share markets ended their trading session marginally higher today.

Benchmark indices erased gains during the last hour of trading and turned flat, dragged down by energy stocks.

The BSE Sensex ended the day up by 40 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty stood higher by 10 points.

The top gainers in NSE today were Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, and M&M.

SGX Nifty was trading at 11,599, up by 51 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended on a flat note. The BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.4%.

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

Meanwhile, energy stocks witnessed selling pressure.

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 0.8% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.4%. The Nikkei ended up by 0.6%.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.7% at Rs 51,419 per 10 grams.

The rupee is trading at 73.82 against the US$.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Realty stocks such as Sunteck Realty, Oberoi Realty, and Indiabulls Real Estate were among the top buzzing stocks today.

Maharashtra government's decision to cut stamp duty from 5% to 2% and other levies for buying and selling of properties in urban and rural areas provided a major fillip to realty stocks.

The state government has cut stamp duty rates from 5% now to 2% in urban areas of the state till December 31 and 3% till March 31, 2021. Urban local body tax has been retained at 1%.

On the other hand, stamp duty rates have been cut from 4% to 1% in rural areas till December 31 and 2% till March 31, 2021.

Among individual stocks, Sunteck Realty zoomed 19% to hit an intra-day high of Rs 307.7 per share on the NSE, while Oberoi Realty surged 8%.

Indiabulls Real Estate jumped over 5%, while Godrej Properties and Sobha gained in the range of 3-4%.

Housing finance companies, too, rallied in trade. HDFC gained 3%. LIC Housing Finance rose 2%, while PNB Housing Finance gained 5%.

Moving on to news from the finance sector, speaking at the 'Unlock BFSI 2.0' event, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das stressed that the central bank has not exhausted its ammunition, whether on rate cuts or other policy actions.

Das stressed that post containment of coronavirus pandemic, a careful trajectory needs to be followed for unwinding and added that the financial sector should return to normalcy.

He said that that the debt resolution framework is expected to give durable relief to the borrowers who are facing COVID-related distress.

He said that the banking sector in India continues to be sound and stable and clarified that it should not be assumed that RBI will unwind the measures soon.

During his address, the RBI governor said that the consolidation of public sector banks is a step in the right direction and added that the size of banks is essential, but efficiency is even more important.

On the financial stress being faced by banks, the central bank head said how banks react and respond to the challenge is important.

He added that a proactive raising of capital will be crucial to improve the resilience of banks and the financial sector.

Shaktikanta Das also said that once there is clarity on the Covid-19 curve and other aspects, the RBI will start giving its estimates on the country's inflation and economic growth.

It would be interesting to track if there are any reforms carried out in the above areas in the coming time and how they help the economy.

Speaking of the finance sector, note that the market crash impacted all stocks, but finance stocks took the worst hit.

Even as the Sensex has made a comeback to pre-COVID levels, the slowdown and asset quality concerns amid the moratorium extension is an overhang on the financial sector.