Nifty holds above 16,900; realty stocks edge higher

The key equity benchmarks traded in narrow range, near the day's high, in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to trade above the 16,900 mark. Realty stocks extended gains for second consecutive session.

At 14:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 1004.6 points or 1.80% to 56,820.92. The Nifty 50 index gained 273.85 points or 1.65% to 16,915.65.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.78% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.63%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,923 shares rose and 1,349 shares fell. A total of 160 shares were unchanged.

Investors cheered after the US Fed hinted at slowing down rate hikes going forward and rejected the speculation that the US economy is in recession.

Economy:

Union Cabinet has approved revival package of over Rs 1.64 Lakh crore for Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL). It has also approved the merger of Bharat Broadband Network and BSNL.

Revival measures focus on infusing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating spectrum, de-stressing its balance sheet, and augmenting its fiber network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with BSNL.

With these measures, BSNL will be able to improve the quality of existing services, roll out 4G services and become financially viable. It is expected that with the implementation of this revival plan, BSNL will turn-around and earn profit in FY 2026-27.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 7.333% as compared with 7.338% at close in the previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee was higher against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 79.7875, compared with its close of 79.9150 during the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2022 settlement rose 0.88% to Rs 51,166.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.19% to 106.25.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for September 2022 settlement added $1.75 or 1.72% to $103.42 a barrel.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index advanced 2.11% to 447. The index has added 3.21% in two sessions.

DLF (up 3.05%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 2.93%), Oberoi Realty (up 2.08%), Brigade Enterprises (up 2.06%) and Sunteck Realty (up 1.86%) were the top gainers.

Among the other gainers were Macrotech Developers (up 1.62%), Godrej Properties (up 1.24%), Sobha (up 0.99%) and Phoenix Mills (up 0.79%).

Stocks in Spotlight:

Jubilant FoodWorks gained 1.77% to Rs 568.35 after the QSR chain operator's standalone net profit soared 61.41% to Rs 100.96 crore on 41.1% surge in revenue from operations to Rs 1,240.27 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

Dr. Lal PathLabs tumbled 4.10% to Rs 2081.30 after the company reported 56.8% drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 57.7 crore on a 17.1% fall in revenue from operations to Rs 502.7 crore in Q1 FY23 over Q1 FY22.

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