Mid-day Mood | Indices trade in narrow range as market awaits US inflation print

Stock Market Today

The market traded in a narrow range through the session so far on September 13 amid subdued cues from global peers. Investors also chose to remain on the sidelines when it came to largecaps while continuing to book profits in the broader market, ahead of the US retail inflation print for August due later in the day.

Benchmarks in the US market ended lower overnight while Asian markets remained largely weak through the day. Moreover, a stellar run in the past couple of  weeks prompted investors to step back and book partial profits off domestic equities, triggering a breather in the market.

"While the medium-term structure of the market is still positive, we believe that the market will experience range-bound movement in the near future," said  Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Research (Retail), Kotak Securities.

Around noon, the Sensex was up 129.85 points, or 0.19 percent, at 67,350.98, and the Nifty was up 39.60 points, or 0.20 percent, at 20,032.80. About 1,569 shares gained, 1,445 traded down, and 93 remained unchanged.

"For traders, it is important to note that the 19,900 level could be a key support level, while 20,070-20,110 could be an immediate resistance zones for the bulls. It is advisable for traders to sell on an upswing till the markets do not cross 20,110," Chouhan added.

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Pressure persisted in the broader market, especially within the midcap space as the Nifty Midcap 100 was down 0.6 percent while the Nifty Smallcap 100 also inched lower. Both the indices recorded their sharpest fall of 2023 in the previous session.

Stocks and sectors

Weak cues from US counterparts and profit-booking after strong gains in the last session pulled all frontline IT stocks into losses. As a result, the Nifty IT index fell 0.4 percent, the worst hit among frontline sectors.

Profit-booking was also rampant in the auto and auto ancillary space, with Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Samvardhana Motherson and Hero MotoCorp floating in the red.

The top gainer in the previous session, Larsen and Toubro also felt the heat of profit-booking and fell nearly 2 percent. However, CLSA still sees an upside potential of 10 percent for the stock from today’s high. The firm remains optimistic about L&T, given the rising project inflow, highest-ever backlog and improving execution. It said margin expansion is likely in the second half of FY24 and buyback will drive up Return on Equity (RoE).

However, realty stocks like Indiabulls Real Estate, Sobha, Hemisphere Properties and Prestige Estates surging 1-4 percent after Pune property registrations doubled on year in August.

KEC International also surged 5 percent and hit a 52-week high in the early trade after the company secured new orders of Rs 1,012 crore across its various businesses.

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