Broader indices at record highs, 67 smallcaps gain up to 32%

The seventh straight week rally in the Indian markets, which is the first time in last 3 years, helped the benchmarks to achieve fresh record highs led by supporting domestic and global data points, extended buying from FIIs, falling bond yields and crude prices and US Fed’s dovish stance improved the investors sentiment.

In this week, BSE Sensex rose 2.37 percent or 1,658.15 points to end at 71,483.75 after hitting record high of 71,605.76, while Nifty50 added 487.3 points or 2.32 percent to close at 21,456.70, hitting new milestone of 21,492.30.

For the week, both the benchmarks gained 6.5 percent each.

Broader indices BSE Small-cap, BSE Mid-cap, BSE Large-cap indices rose 9.7 percent, 11.5 percent and 11 percent, respectively and also touched record highs of 42,219.19, 36,421.02 and 8,218.77.

“The market surged to new highs, buoyed by positive indicators from both domestic and global fronts. Robust domestic industrial production and manufacturing PMI, coupled with the RBI’s positive remarks on India’s GDP forecast, contributed to the bullish trend. The ease in US bond yield and the expectation of multiple rate cuts by the Fed in 2024 further fuelled market optimism,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

“Investors expressed confidence that clouds over US economic growth would dissipate in H2CY24, anticipating a soft landing facilitated by normalization in monetary policy. The IT sector rallied 7.6% this week in expectation of a rise in demand from the US, optimism about AI-based opportunities, and hope that the Fed will cut interest rates in 2024. We expect a near-term consolidation in the market due to elevated valuations, concerns over El Nino, and a slowdown in world GDP,” he added.

All the sectoral indices ended in the green with Nifty Information Technology added 7 percent, Nifty PSU Bank and Metal indices rose 5 percent each, and Nifty Realty index gained nearly 4 percent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended the buying in this week as they bought equities worth of Rs 18,858.34 crore, while Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth Rs 2,592.35 crore. In the month of December so far, FIIs bought equities worth Rs 29,733.06 crore, while DIIs purchased equities worth Rs 3,182.20 crore.

The BSE Small-cap index rose 9.7 percent with GTL Infrastructure, Coffee Day Enterprises, PTC India Financial Services, Mangalam Cement, Wockhardt, Inox Green Energy Services, Housing & Urban Development Corporation, Onward Technologies, Vikas WSP, Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores and Kiri Industries rising between 20-35 percent.

On the other hand, 63 Moons Technologies, Axita Cotton, Jain Irrigation Systems, BCL Industries, Lloyds Enterprises, PRAVEG, EKI Energy Services lost between 8-22 percent.

Where is Nifty50 headed?

Ajit Mishra, SVP – Technical Research, Religare Broking:

We could see a breather in the index after the recent surge and expect to hold the 21,000-21,200 zone in case of any dip. Much on the expected lines, banking and IT majors are among the top contributors in the present leg of up move and we believe their outperformance could continue. Participants should align their trades accordingly and avoid contrarian positions.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities:

The Nifty’s upward momentum persists with the bulls maintaining control in the market. Achieving a new all-time high, the index has marked its seventh consecutive weekly gain. The prevailing sentiment appears strongly in favor of the bulls, as indicated by the absence of any reversal signals on the technical charts. Resistance is observed at 21,500, while a potential further rally in the Nifty could occur upon breaching this level. Support is currently positioned at 21,300.

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