Indian equities set to ‘weather’ conditions
mumbai — Indian equity markets turned bullish on reports that the government’s weather forecaster has predicted healthy monsoon rains and surged to record high levels during the trade week ended Friday.
Key Indian equity indices zoomed to new closing and 52week highs, crossing their psychologically-significant levels, riding on news reports which quoted a top India Meteorological Department (IMD) official predicting a higher rainfall than previously forecast as the El Nino weather condition had eased.
Substantial inflow of foreign funds and global cues, too, kept investors’ sentiments buoyed. However, markets pared minor gains due to a selloff led by banking stocks on the last trading day of the week.
On May 11, the wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a new closing high of 9,422.40 points, and the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE a new high of 30,250.98 points.
On the same day, benchmark indices also touched record intraday highs, as well as new 52-week highs. The Nifty scaled a new high of 9,450.65 points and the BSE Sensex of 30,366.43 points. In
The active participation of domestic institutional investors has balanced any modest selling by foreign players D.K. Aggarwal, chairman and MD of SMC Investments and Advisors
the past week, the S&P BSE Sensex augmented by 329.35 points or 1.10 per cent to close at 30,188.15 points, while the NSE Nifty surged by 115.6 points or 1.24 per cent to wind up the week’s trade at 9,400.90 points.
“Markets surged higher this week to new life highs on the back of global and domestic cues,” Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities, told IANS. “Sectorally, the top gainers were the auto, metals, realty, telecom, FMCG, IT, healthcare and cement indices. The top losers were PSU [banks] and utilities indices.”
D.K. Aggarwal chairman and managing director of SMC Investments and Advisors, said Indian stock markets rallied to record highs due to the active participation of domestic market players.
“The active participation of DIIs [domestic institutional investors] has balanced any modest selling by foreign players,” Aggarwal asserted. —