Sensex ekes out 14-point gain, Nifty settles above 17,600; Rossari Biotech, Adani Transmission & Adani Green jump up to 19%

Indian equity benchmarks on Monday settled marginally higher amid a volatile trading session, taking their winning run to the sixth consecutive session. The domestic bourses stayed in the positive territory led by gains in automobile, technology, metal and energy stocks. An uptick in Adani Group's stocks also helped the indices to close in the green. However, weakness in banks, financials and consumer goods limited gains. On the global front, most Asian shares finished higher. Australian, Hong Kong and European markets are closed for Easter. Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex pack edged 14 points or 0.02 per cent to close at 59,847; while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 25 points or 0.14 per cent up to settle at 17,624. Mid and smallcap shares finished on a strong note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.38 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.28 per cent. Fear index India VIX jumped 4.02 per cent to 12.27.

"Sentiments in the domestic market improved after the RBI's decision to keep rates unchanged, coupled with positive revisions in GDP and inflation forecasts. The positive quarterly business updates from auto and real estate firms caused strong movements in their respective sectors, but the overall mood was slightly dampened by solid US job data, which raised fears of further rate hikes by the Fed. The release of inflation data in India and the US, along with the FOMC minutes, have now become crucial in determining the market trend," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Buying interest in select index heavyweights such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys also lifted the indices higher.

Nine out of the 15 sectoral indices on NSE settled in the green. Nifty Auto, Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Oil & Gas outperformed the index by rising 1.18 per cent, 0.96 per cent, 0.76 per cent and 0.77 per cent, respectively. Also, NSE's realty index surged 4.29 per cent.

"Nifty remained volatile within a narrow range before closing on a muted note. On the daily charts, the index has maintained its position above the breakout zone. The momentum oscillator RSI is in bullish crossover and rising. The market continues to remain buy-on-dips as long as it sustains above 17,500. On the higher end, immediate resistance is visible at 17,700; above which the index may move up toward higher levels," said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.

Among BSE 500 stocks, Rossari Biotech zoomed 19.07 per cent. Godrej Properties, Chemplast Sanmar, Prestige Estates, Thyrocare Technologies and DLF soared up to 9.06 per cent. Power Finance Corporation, Kajaria Ceramics, Tata Motors and Aarti Drugs rose up to 5.72 per cent.

Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy and Adani Totat Gas settled at their respective upper price bands of 5 per cent. Adani Group today shared a letter sent to the Financial Times (FT) following its publication of an article that contained "fundamental misunderstandings of prior Adani Group disclosures, and resultant inaccuracies in the story." The energy-to-ports conglomerate called the FT report 'inaccurate'. All 10 listed Adani Group stocks settled in the green.

On the flip side, Vakrangee crashed 9.43 per cent today. Kirloskar Ferrous Industries and Usha Martin slipped up to 6.71 per cent. Also, Tata Teleservices, Brightcom Group, Anupam Rasayan, Petronet LNG, Symphony, Gujarat Pipavav, Keu Industries and Orient Electric fell up to 5 per cent.

Out of a total of 3,781 stocks that traded during the day, 2,013 settled with gains while 1,606 others ended lower. The rest 162 stocks stayed unchanged.

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