Market hits new milestones; ends 2023 with handsome gains

Indian market ended year 2023 and the last week of the year on strong note on expectation of rate cuts early in the year 2024. The market also hit fresh record high in this week amid buying from FIIs and positive global cues.

For the week, BSE Sensex rose 1.60 percent or 1,133.3 points to end at 72,240.26, while Nifty50 added 382 points or 1.78 percent to finish at 21731.4. On December 28, the Sensex and Nifty touched fresh record highs of 72,484.34 and 21,801.45 and for the year 2023, rose 18.7 and 20 percent, respectively.

The BSE Small-cap index posted fresh record high of 42,728.21 as it added 1.6 percent with Gujarat Themis Biosyn, Surya Roshni, Syncom Formulations, Gallantt Ispat, Kamdhenu, Black Box, Hindustan Copper and Shivalik Rasayan rose 20-32 percent, while Sanmit Infra, PC Jeweller, Lloyds Engineering Works and GTL Infrastructure fell 9-24 percent.

The BSE Large-cap Index also hit fresh record high of 8,336.23 and added nearly 2 percent in this week supported by Tata Consumer Products, Hindalco Industries, Tata Motors, Punjab National Bank, Indus Towers and GAIL India. However, losers included Zomato, Adani Wilmar, Bajaj Holdings & Investment and ABB India.

BSE Mid-cap Index gained 2.6 percent and hits fresh record level of 36,889.87 during the week. Gainers included 3M India, Vodafone Idea, Emami, Castrol India, Steel Authority of India, Aarti Industries, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Exide Industries, MRF, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, L&T Finance Holdings.

In terms of the market value, Nestle India added the most in terms of market value, followed by UltraTech Cement, Mahindra and Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever.

On the sectoral front, BSE Telecommunication, BSE Auto and BSE Metal added 4 percent each, and BSE FMCG index rose 3 percent. On the other hand, BSE Information Technology index was down 0.5 percent.

During the week, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bough equities worth of Rs 8,648.96 crore, while Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also bought equities worth Rs 666.06 crore. However, in the month of December, FIIs bought equities worth Rs 31,959.78 crore, while DIIs purchased equities worth Rs 12,942.25 crore.

Indian rupee posted marginal losses against the US dollar, as the domestic unit closed at 83.20 in the week ended December 29 against December 22 closing of 83.15.