Sensex, Nifty shed most of day's gains, end flat; Tata Motors, realty stocks zoom

Shedding most of their day's gains, the benchmark indices S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50 ended flat with a positive bias on April 10. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 59,846.51 levels, up 13.54 points or 0.023 per cent while the 50-share index Nifty of NSE closed at 17,610.25, up 11.10 points, or 0.063 per cent. 

On Sensex, Tata Motors (up over 5 per cent) emerged as the biggest gainer, followed by Wipro and Power Grid - up nearly 2 per cent each. Of 30 stocks, 13 ended in the red while the rest 17 shut shop in the green. Bajaj Finance (down nearly 2 per cent) was the top loser on the index. 

Volatility index India Vix jumped over 4 per cent to 12.27 levels, indicating heightened volatility in the market.

Among other blue chips, the engineering major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) hit its 52-week high level of  Rs 2,319.65 after the company informed that its Hydrocarbon Business (L&T Energy Hydrocarbon – LTEH) has recently secured an order under its AdVENT (Advanced Value Engineering and Technology) business vertical. The stock eventually settled at Rs 2309.15, up 1.51 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki, on the other hand, ended in positive territory after slipping over 1 per cent in the morning trade. The stock dropped after Goldman Sachs downgraded it to 'neutral' with a target price of Rs 8,800. 

"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," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The release of inflation data in India and the US, along with the FOMC minutes, have now become crucial in determining the market trend, Nair added.

The broader market performed better than the frontline indices. For instance, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained 0.38 per cent to 24,443.02 while the S&P SmallCap index rose 0.16 per cent to 27,771 levels. 

On the sectoral front, realty stocks stole the limelight. The S&P Realty index jumped over 4 per cent to 3,369.53 levels. Godrej Properties ( up over 9 per cent) was the top gainer on the index, followed by Prestige and DLF.