After seeing a quiet start, stocks picked up steam in morning trade to hit fresh intraday high. At 10:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 78 points or 0.23% at 33,448.63. The Nifty 50 index was up 16.85 points or 0.16% at 10,261.85. Realty stocks gained ahead of the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting. Cement stocks edged higher. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose.
Trading for the day began on a quiet note as stocks traded with small gains in early trade.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.58%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.03%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The broad market depicted strength. There were almost four gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,694 shares rose and 432 shares fell. A total of 77 shares were unchanged.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading mixed as investors took a cautious stance following the latest developments in US-China trade tensions. US stocks closed higher yesterday, 3 April 2018 as investors digested a sharp move lower in the previous session and gauged the likelihood of both trade risk and further weakness in technology names.
The US unveiled 25% levies on a range of Chinese imports from high-tech industries like medicine, aviation and semiconductor machinery to intermediate goods like machinery and chemicals.
Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.75% to Rs 905.50.
Realty stocks gained ahead of the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting. Purchases of both residential and commercial property are largely driven by finance.
Indiabulls Real Estate (up 5.96%), DLF (up 1.82%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (up 0.84%), D B Realty (up 4.99%), Unitech (up 17.89%), Sobha (up 3.79%) and Prestige Estates Projects (up 3.39%) gained. Oberoi Realty (down 0.23%) and Godrej Properties (down 0.02%) fell.
Cement stocks rose. Ambuja Cements (up 0.75%), ACC (up 1.33%), UltraTech Cement (up 0.33%) and Shree Cement (up 0.22%) gained.
Grasim Industries was off 0.17%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
Traders and investors are awaiting the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting. The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meets today, 4 April 2018 and tomorrow, 5 April 2018 for the first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2018-2019. The resolution of the MPC will be announced at 14:30 IST tomorrow, 5 April 2018.
In its last meeting on 7 February 2018, RBI decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6%. Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 5.75%, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the bank rate at 6.25%.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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