Metal stocks drive Indian shares higher

Benchmark indices ended marginally higher on Tuesday, driven by gains in metal stocks on expectations of demand recovery in top consumer China.

The Nifty 50 index settled 0.19 per cent higher at 19,342.65 at 3:30 pm, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.12 per cent to 65,075.82.

Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with Nifty metal index and realty index leading with a 1.3 per cent and 1.7 per cent rise, respectively.

Metal stocks have gained 1.5 per cent so far this week after China announced measures to support its ailing property sector.

The metals sector is expected to benefit over fiscal 2023-2025 from a gradual economic recovery in China, rising private capex and recovery in automobile and realty sectors, analysts at Prabhudas Lilladher said in a note.

India’s benchmark indexes have fallen over 3 per cent from record highs hit in July amid the rise in inflation as well as valuation concerns and analysts expect the markets to remain subdued in the near term.

However, the more domestically-focussed small-caps and mid-caps were up 0.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent, respectively, continuing to outperform the blue-chip benchmarks.

“New money, mainly retail money has come into the mid-cap and small-cap and has powered the ongoing rally, which has come after a two-year period of consolidation,” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.

Among individual stocks, heavyweight Reliance Industries fell 1 per cent after the company’s annual general meeting offered little clues to investors on the listing of its retail and telecom units.

Gokaldas Exports surged over 13 per cent over a deal to buy Dubai-based apparel maker Atraco Group for $55 million.

The realty index was powered by a 5.4 per cent gain in Indiabulls Real Estate shares after it appointed a new COO