Sensex tops 64,000, Nifty 1 9,000 on strong eco, FII buying – Times of India

MUMBAI: Signs of a strong incoming rally on Dalal Street have been around for the past couple of months, from the time foreign funds started buying Indian stocks aggressively from early May. However, global factors like hawkish statements from the US Fed, surprise rate hikes by European central banks and indications of an impending economic weakness in China, were keeping the sensex from rallying past its 6-month-old life-high mark of 63,588-point decisively.
Finally, on Wednesday the sensex crossed the 64K mark in intra-day trade for the first time ever, and thanks to profit-taking, it closed just a tad lower from those lofty heights, at 63,915 points, up 0.8% or 499 points for the day. On the NSE too, the Nifty recorded its individual mark: For the first time, it crossed the 19K mark but closed a tad off at 18,972 points, up 0.8% or 155 points from its previous close.

FPIs buy Rs 12,000 crore stocks in a day
The all-time high for sensex was at 64,050 while that for nifty was 19,011. A combination of domestic and global factors has been contributing to the market’s gains in the past few weeks, brokers and analysts said. “Strong institutional flows, healthy macros and robust earnings growth drove the domestic (indices) toward new highs,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head, retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Since May, foreign portfolio investors have net pumped in over Rs 85,000 crore, data from CDSL and BSE showed. Last month, the government said India’s GDP for March quarter had grown at 6.1% while tax collections – both GST and direct taxes – showed double-digit growth on annual basis. “Further, robust US consumer and home sales data soothed investors’ sentiment (in India). With the onset of the monsoon and the RBI taking a rate pause, we expect market momentum to continue and remain buoyant,” said Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal.
Wednesday’s rally was mainly led by foreign funds. Net foreign fund flow for the day was at Rs 12,350 crore, one of the largest single-session figures in recent times. This mainly rode on the back of a $1-billion-plus buying in the stocks of Adani Group companies that was led by US-based Adani-bull GQG Partners. Domestic funds, however, were net sellers at Rs 1,021 crore, BSE data showed.
The day’s session also added nearly Rs 2 lakh crore to investors’ wealth with BSE’s market capitalisation now at Rs 296.7 lakh crore.
Going forward, market players expect a positive bias for the Indian market.
Watch Indian stock indices touch fresh all-time highs; Sensex, Nifty up over 1 pc