Dalal Street Stocks Advance, China Stocks Retain Downward Bias

Arjun Pandit
05 Jan, 2024
Mumbai

Stocks in Mumbai advanced on the final trading day of the first week in 2024.

The Nifty and the Sensex indexes edged up more than 0.2% in early trading amid muted gains in overnight trading in New York and mixed trading in Asian markets.

Market indexes in Asia traded mixed, and the indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong traded down.

The Hang Seng index is set to close down more than 2.5% and the CSI 300 index by 1.7%.

Stocks in China have been under pressure this week after an official survey showed manufacturing activities contracted for the third month in a row in December and home sales declines deepened at the nation's top 100 home builders in the month.

In Tokyo, stocks edged up slightly and are set to close higher in the holiday-shortened week.

Market indexes in Seoul and Sydney were nearly unchanged in Friday's trading, and they are set to close down about 1.4% in the week.

 

India Indexes and Yields

The Sensex index increased 123.42 points to 72,051.36, and the Nifty index gained 53.75 points to 21,708.25.

On the Mumbai stock exchange, 412 stocks traded at their 52-week highs and 4 stocks traded at their 52-week lows.

The yield on the 10-year Indian government bonds held firm at 7.22%, and the Indian rupee hovered near ₹83.23 against the U.S. dollar.

The gold price increased by 0.01% to ₹62,674 per ten grams, and silver rose by 0.3% to ₹72,500 per kilo.

Crude oil increased by 0.4% to ₹6,055 per barrel, and natural gas declined by 1.6% to ₹232.10 per thermal unit.

 

India Stock Movers

Oil marketing companies were in focus, and the companies offered a higher price for ethanol produced from corn.

Oil companies raised the price by ₹5.79 to ₹71.86 per liter for the supply of ethanol for the new fiscal year that started in November.

HPCL increased 1.4% to ₹421.70, and BPCL advanced 0.8% to ₹456.30.

Dabur India added 0.4% to ₹567.75, and the company reiterated December quarter revenue growth in the "mid- to high single-digit."

The company attributed weak growth to lagging demand growth in rural markets and a subdued price increase for its products.

The consumer products company said gross margins are likely to expand, led by moderating inflation and cost-savings initiatives.

Sobha declined 1.1% to ₹1,280.25 after the real estate developer reported record sales in the December quarter of ₹1,952 crore.

The company also launched two new property development projects in the quarter, with a total saleable area of 3.84 million square feet.

Nestle India declined 1.9% to ₹2,660.10, and the company traded ex-split for the first time.

The company announced a 10-to-1 stock split effective January 5 to increase the participation of retail investors and liquidity.

Foreign institutional investors lowered their stake in the company to 12.1% from 12.38%, and domestic institutional investors increased their stake to 9.32 from 9.05 in the June quarter, respectively.

Grasim Industries increased 0.3% to ₹2,077.0 after the company announced a secondary offering to raise as much as 4,000 crore.

The company set the offering price at ₹1,812 per share, about a 12% discount from the current market price.

Jammu &Kashmir Bank gained 1.6% to ₹130.95 after the bank reported total deposits in the December quarter increased 9% from a year ago to 1.29 lakh crore.

Utkarsh Small Finance Bank jumped 1% to ₹58.15 after the company said gross loans issued increased by 31% in the December quarter.

Macrotech Developers gained 0.9% to ₹1,106.10 after the company said sales in the December quarter increased 12% to 3,410 crore from 3,040 crore a year ago.