Sensex Down Marginally; Adani Group Shares Rally

(RTTNews) - Indian shares are turning in a mixed performance Tuesday morning with investors looking for directional clues. Activity is mostly stock specific and movements are a bit range-bound.

The BSE benchmark Sensex is down 19.52 points or 0.03% at 65,950.52. The index, which advanced to 66,098.80, dropped to a low of 65,911.11.

The broader Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange is up 23.85 points or 0.12% at 19,818.55.

Tata Motors is rising more than 2.5%. The company has announced that it is considering increasing the cost of its passenger and electric vehicles in January 2024.

UltraTech Cement is up 1.5%, while Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank are up 0.8 to 1.2%.

NTPC, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India and Tata Steel are modestly higher.

Reliance Industries is down by about 0.6%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and ITC are down 0.4 to 0.5%.

BPCL is gaining 3.2%. Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, HeroMotocorp, ONGC and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories are also up with strong gains.

Adani Group shares are gaining for a second straight day following the Supreme Court concluding hearings on several petitions demanding an inquiry into the Adani-Hindenburg matter, and SEBI informing the court that it does not need additional time to complete its investigation into the Adani Group.

Adani Enterprises is up nearly 7%, and Adani Ports is gaining about 3.5%. Adani Total Gas has soared 20%, Adani Green Energy has surged nearly 10%, Adani Power is rising 7% and Adani Wilmar is gaining about 6%.

SAIL is up 1.5%. The state-run steel producer seeks to increase the provisional price of rails to the Indian Railways, citing higher costs.

Eicher Motors Limited has launched a new Himalayan bike, priced at Rs 2.69 lakh onwards. The stock is down by about 0.6%.

Newgen Software Technologies Limited is up 5% after the company announced that its board has approved the proposal to issue bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1. The company has set the record date as Friday, 12 January 2024 for the purpose.

Maruti Suzuki has announced that it plans to increase the prices of its cars across models in January 2024 due to increased cost pressure driven by overall inflation and increased commodity prices. The stock is up 0.5%.

On the economic front, S&P Global Ratings has hiked India's GDP growth rate forecast for 2023-24 to 6.4% from 6% earlier. However, it has slashed the GDP growth projection for financial year 2024-25 by 50 basis points to 6.4%.

India's Q2 GDP data and the infrastructure output data for October will be released on Thursday while the manufacturing PMI numbers will be out on Friday.

The market breadth is positive. On BSE, 2,094 stocks are up in positive territory. 1,442 stocks are weak, and 192 stocks are unchanged from their previous closing levels.