By Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares were little changed on Wednesday, as a slide in consumer stocks offset a rise in metals, ahead of the release of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) policy meeting minutes and a key global central bankers’ gathering.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.07% at 19,383.40 at 10:16 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.09% to 65,159.74.
Metals climbed 1%, on the back of a 2.5% uptick in Hindalco Industries. The metal firm announced a 20-billion-rupee ($241.11 million) investment plan to bring new technologies for Indian Railways at the company’s 64th annual general meeting on Tuesday.
Consumer stocks fell 0.4%, dragged by concerns over erratic monsoons in the last few weeks.
The more domestically focussed mid-caps and small-caps gained over 0.5% each.
Mid-caps and small-caps have added over 22% each in 2023 so far, compared with the 7% rise in the Nifty 50.
The sustained interest in mid-caps and small-caps is driven by hopes of strong near-term returns, strong domestic macroeconomic fundamentals and earnings visibility, three analysts said.
“While the Nifty 50 is finding support at the 50-day simple moving average of 19,350.59, midcap stocks, especially IT names, look interesting due to attractive valuations,” said Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets.
Indian stocks are set for muted gains by the end of 2023, with a correction likely, according to a Reuters poll of equity analysts.
Among individual stocks, Jio Financial Services hit its 5% lower circuit for the third session in a row. The stock’s removal from the benchmarks has been postponed to Aug. 28 from Aug. 23.
Investors await the annual central bankers’ meeting at Jackson Hole in Wyoming and the release of the minutes of the RBI’s latest policy meeting, scheduled later this week.
($1 = 82.9490 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Janane Venkatraman)
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