Short covering snaps 2-day market fall

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded nearly one per cent on Thursday after sliding for the past two sessions, propped up by bargain hunting in realty, power and financial stocks.The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 490.97 points or 0.69 per cent to settle at 71,847.57 points. During the day, it rallied 598.19 points or 0.83 per cent to 71,954.79 points. The Nifty climbed 141.25 points or 0.66 per cent to 21,658.60 points. “Market bounced back after the last two negative trading days led by strong monthly business updates of leading banks, emphasising robust credit growth. The realty sector was the highest gainer in anticipation of robust demand in the residential category, which was supported by healthy housing loan disbursement data announced by banks,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services. “Asian shares were mixed on Thursday as traders dialled back bets of steep and early rate cuts this year, with the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last meeting providing few clues on when US cuts might start. European stock markets rose Thursday, rebounding after recent losses as investors digested regional inflation data and the outlook for central bank rate cuts,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

“The Nifty realty index has outperformed the broader market in 2023, marking a strong turn since the RBI paused on rate hikes in March 2023. A potential rate cut in 2024, as global rates likely head down, will be positive for the sector. However, the strong rally in realty stocks so far has priced in some of these gains. It is important to note that property sales have favoured premium & luxury housing in this upturn so far. A potential rate cut could help the affordable housing segment more. With talks of the government reviving its interest subvention scheme for affordable housing, there seems to be some more steam to the rally,” Naveen KR, smallcase manager and Senior Director - Windmill Capital, said. Among the indices, realty zoomed 6.61 per cent, utilities jumped 2.55 per cent, telecommunication (2.09 per cent), services (1.68 per cent), financial services (1.30 per cent), banking (0.93 per cent) and consumer discretionary (0.82 per cent). Auto and metal were the laggards.