Sensex, Nifty touch fresh highs on FII inflows, global cues

Investors will also watch out for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes to get insights into the US Central Bank’s future course of direction, he said.

Domestic stock markets rose over 1 per cent to end at record highs on Friday, aided by robust inflows from foreign investors, positive global data and progress in monsoon.

The BSE Sensex surged 803 points, or 1.26 per cent, to close at an all-time high of 64,718.56. The broader Nifty gained 216.95 points, or 1.14 per cent, to a fresh peak of 19,189.05. During the previous week, Sensex rose by over 1,700 points.

“The lack of global support had restrained the Indian indices from pursuing their record highs earlier, despite the presence of a resilient domestic macroeconomic background. With positive surprises assisting buoyancy in the global market and the advance of the southwest monsoon, the domestic market succeeded in marching to new highs with renewed strength,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Investors’ sentiments were boosted by an upward revision in US first-quarter GDP and a surprise fall in jobless claims. The US GDP growth estimate for the first three months of 2023 was revised to 2 per cent from an earlier estimate of 1.3 per cent.

The domestic market’s upward momentum was supported by strong inflows from FIIs and a narrowing current account deficit.

On June 30, foreign investors net bought Rs 6,397.13 crore of shares from the domestic market, according to the BSE’s provisional data. In the first quarter of the current fiscal, FIIs have pumped in over Rs 102,617 crore into the equities market, as per National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) data.

The country’s current account deficit (CAD) — the difference between exports and imports of goods and services — narrowed to $1.3 billion, or 0.2 per cent, of the gross domestic product (GDP), in the January-March quarter of FY2023 from $16.8 billion, or 2 per cent, of GDP in the preceding quarter. In Q4 FY2022, CAD was $13.4 billion, or 1.6 per cent of GDP.

All sectors ended in the green, except metals. Auto, IT, PSU Bank, and Pharma were the front-runners.

Among the Nifty 50 companies, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma and Hero Motocorp Ltd emerged as the top performers.

Adani Ports, Grasim, Apollo Hospitals, HDFC Life and Adani Enterprises were the top losers in the market.

BankNifty rose 419.55 points, or 0.95 per cent, to close at a fresh all-time high of 44,747.35.

“We expect the uptrend in Indian equities to continue in the near term. Next week the market will take cues from economic data to be released locally as well as globally,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Investors will also watch out for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes to get insights into the US Central Bank’s future course of direction, he said.

The auto sector is expected to be in the limelight, as companies would release monthly sales data.