Market Movers: Realty stocks get retail lift as Just Dial soars on takeover buzz

MUMBAI: Who knew retail investors could be this powerful. Besides driving the subscription levels for the initial public offering of Zomato, they are also running the secondary market all while cleaning the dishes, acing their jobs and finding what to watch next on Netflix.

The deluge of retail activity helped the benchmark indices to their record highs today. This is a bull market whose legs are not in the country’s financial center Mumbai, but spread across its length and breadth.

“Dropping institutional participation rates have contributed in part to a 20 per cent drop in daily market volumes. However, market breadth and retail participation in the futures segment continue to remain robust and underpinning strength in the ongoing broad market rally,” said S Hariharan, head of sales trading at Emkay Global Financial Services.

That frenzied buying by retail investors benefitted one sector more than any other today.

Realty’s rally rumbles on
Real estate stocks had a bonanza sessions thanks to buying from retail investors who see a bigger story emerging in the sector. While the rally in realty stocks had come to an abrupt end during the summer month due to COVID-19, it has recently resumed. The Nifty Realty index has managed to blaze past its decade high, suggesting that the good days of the mid-2010s for the sector may return sooner than most would have expected.

Just Dial soars as RIL calls up
Shares of the yellow pages of the Internet surged today after The Economic Times reported that oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries is hunting for the company. RIL is in talks to buy promoters’ stake in the online listing and directory company, which is also looking at plans for a business-to-business e-commerce portal. With the promoters holding more than 35 per cent stake, any acquisition is likely to trigger an open offer and therefore, a bonanza for shareholders. The stock of the company ended over 3 per cent higher.

IT stocks bath in Infosys’ shine
While it was Infosys that showed all the glam in its June quarter earnings announced on Wednesday, investors rewarded other IT sector stocks today. The IT sector bellwether’s optimistic commentary on deal momentum and demand in the global market enthused investors about the prospects of other mid-sized companies in the sector who offer higher growth potential. The Nifty IT index surged 1.3 per cent , comfortably outperforming the Nifty50. As the good times keep rolling in for the sector, this juggernaut may take some stopping.