India's benchmark indexes Nifty 50 and Sensex were muted on Monday, the first session of 2024, dragged by high weightage information technology and financials, after clocking a 20% rise in 2023.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 (.NSEI) fell 0.08% to 21,714.15 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) shed 0.15% to 72,132,72, as of 9:51 a.m. IST.
Five of the 13 major sectors logged losses. Financials (.NIFTYFIN) and IT (.NIFTYIT) fell 0.25% each.
The more domestically-focussed small- (.NIFSMCP100) and mid-caps (.NIFMDCP100) gained about 0.3% each, outperforming the benchmarks, despite concerns over high valuations.
"We stick with our positive view on large-caps, where valuations are still somewhat reasonable," according to analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities.
Barring banks, most other sectors and stocks are over-valued, they added.
Oil and gas index (.NIFOILGAS) gained 0.8%, on falling crude prices due to demand concerns. Easing oil prices are positive for importers of the commodity like India.
Airline operators like Interglobe Aviation (INGL.NS) and SpiceJet jumped between 1.5% and 3%, aided by cut in aviation turbine fuel costs.
Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL.NS) jumped 4.4% on bagging a contract worth 190 billion rupees from NLC India. HFCL (HFCL.NS) climbed 3% on winning a $135 million order.
Grasim Industries (GRAS.NS) gained 1.5% and was among the top Nifty 50 gainers after commissioning additional capacity of advanced materials manufacturing.
Eicher Motors (EICH.NS)shed 1.6% and was the top percentage loser on the Nifty 50. The automaker received goods and services tax (GST) demand order worth about 1.30 billion rupees.
Mahindra and Mahindra (MAHM.NS)lost 1% after the government levied a 41.2 million rupees tax penalty on the firm. The company said it will challenge the order.
