By Linus Garg
First publised on 2024-04-11 03:31:30
The stock indices in India - Nifty and Sensex - breached an important psychological barrier on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, both indices achieved new life-time highs in intra-day trading. The Sensex breached the 75000 barrier and the Nifty 22750 but they closed lower due to profit-taking in closing trades. But the momentum was too strong and on Wednesday, buyers emerged to push back the sellers and Sensex gained 354 points to close at 75038 and Nifty 111 points to end at 22754, the first time ever that the indices had closed above 75000 and 22750.
With reports of inflation picking up in the US reducing the chances of an early rate cut by the US Fed, this rally in Indian markets is going to continue. On Wednesday too, foreign funds were more active than domestic ones. The BSE market capitalization stood at Rs 402 lakh crore at the close of Wednesday's trading, another life-time high. The Sensex was 25000 in 2015 and has trebled in just a little over 9 years.
The rally in the market is due to a host of factors - upbeat domestic growth figures, rising rural demand, good earnings in several sectors, a huge jump in new retail investors, a general perception that the Indian economy is resilient and the best bet for growth in a situation where other economies, including that of China, are reporting slowdowns, and foreign funds' continued support as US interest rates are not likely to be reduced anytime soon.
On Wednesday, although the Indian markets rose to scale new heights, they could not match the bull run at their Asian peers. Metal shares rose on the day to propel the indices. The Indian markets will remain closed today (April 11) due to Id Ul Fitr but the Asian markets (except Shanghai) are all enjoying an extended rally. Hence, is is safe to assume that the rally in the Indian markets will continue on Friday if foreign funds remain net buyers and there is no inordinately high level of profit-taking.