Indian Equities Recover As Key Adani Stocks Cap Losses

Indian shares struggled for direction in a highly volatile session on Monday, ahead of the Union Budget, as select Adani stocks arrested the slide after a short-seller attack on group companies triggered a sell-off over the previous two sessions.

The Nifty 50 index closed 0.25 per cent higher at 17,648.95, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.29 per cent to 59,500.41. Both the indices swung between 0.6 per cent gains and 1.1 per cent losses during the session before settling a notch higher.

“Volatility continued to be the order of the day, as benchmark Sensex gyrated nearly 1000 points intra-day before staging a smart comeback in late trades on selective buying. Two big events, the interest rate decision by the US Federal Reserve and the Union Budget are keeping investors nervous,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities.

The US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and the Bank of England are scheduled to announce their rate decisions, later this week.

Adani Enterprises rose as much as 10 per cent before paring gains to settle 4.76 per cent higher while Adani Ports closed little changed. ACC and Ambuja Cements also advanced over 1 per cent while the other group stocks corrected for the third consecutive session.

Twenty-nine of the Nifty 50 constituents advanced while 21 declined. Among individual stocks, Bajaj Finance rose over 4.5 per cent after its third-quarter earnings beat estimates, while Sun Pharma hovered near an eight-year high ahead of third-quarter results.

Foreign institutional investors sold 83.72 billion rupees worth of shares over the last two sessions since Hindenburg's report.