Indian stocks were little changed yesterday as investors watched for signs that a record-breaking rally could broaden out beyond a handful of large companies.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.04% to 41,588 points at the close in Mumbai. The NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.1%. While the Sensex has recovered from a mid-year slump to deliver a roughly 15% return in 2019, the S&P BSE Midcap Index is down about 3%.
Investors have continued to prize perceived “high-quality” stocks of established companies that dominate their industries, as they are regarded as safer bets at a time when India’s economy is growing at the slowest pace in six years.
A potential revival in gross domestic product expansion in 2020 is widely expected to reverse this trend.
“We are watching out for the broadening out of the rally, which we expect to happen in the first half of 2020,” said Amit Khurana, director of research at Dolat Capital Market. “The moment fund managers find the risk-reward to be more favourable for mid and small caps, they will start investing in them.”
Fourteen of 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd climbed, led by a gauge of automotive companies.
Eighteen Sensex shares rose, 12 fell.
HDFC Bank contributed most the benchmark index advance with a 0.5% gain. Nestle India had the biggest jump, rising 1.5%. ICICI Bank was the biggest drag on the index and lost the most, falling 1%.
Meanwhile the Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar yesterday, tracking losses in local equity market.
The domestic currency was trading at 71.39 a dollar, down 0.05% from Friday’s close of 71.36. The Indian unit opened at 71.34 a dollar.
In the year so far, the rupee has weakened 2.27%. Foreign investors have bought nearly $14.37bn in Indian equities and $3.69bn in debt.
The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.507% from its previous close of 6.506%. The benchmark equity index Sensex was down 0.22% .
Asian currencies were trading higher. Malaysian ringgit gained 0.44%, South Korean won 0.44%, Thai baht fell 0.33%, Japanese yen 0.24%, Singapore dollar 0.23%, Indonesian rupiah 0.19%, Taiwan dollar 0.18%, China Offshore 0.16%, China renminbi 0.11% and Hong Kong dollar 0.014%.
However, Philippines peso lost 0.06%.
The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 96.786, down 0.14% from its previous close of 96.919.
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/2Q9vbtU
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