Indian markets achieve 7th straight week of gains, hit fresh milestones

Indian markets extended their winning streak for the seventh consecutive week with benchmarks hitting new lifetime highs in the week ended December 15 led by positive global as well as domestic cues, including dovish Fed stance, FII buying, better macro data, and, no change in the policy rates by the major global central banks.

This week, BSE Sensex rose 2.37 percent or 1,658.15 points to end at 71,483.75 after hitting a record high of 71,605.76, while Nifty50 added 487.3 points or 2.32 percent to close at 21,456.70, hitting a new milestone of 21,492.30. For the week, both the benchmarks gained 6.5 percent each.

BSE Mid-cap Index gained 11.5 percent and hit a record high of 36,421.02 this week led by Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Steel Authority of India, GMR Airports Infrastructure, Persistent Systems, MphasiS, Union Bank of India, Solar Industries India and Vodafone Idea. However, the losers were PI Industries, Vedant Fashions, Delhivery, Torrent Power, Max Financial Services, JSW Energy, PB Fintech and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electrical.

The BSE Large-cap Index surged nearly 11 percent supported by Info Edge India, HCL Technologies, DLF, LTIMindtree, Bandhan Bank, Hindalco Industries, NTPC, UltraTech Cement. Losers included Adani Total Gas, Adani Energy Solutions, One 97 Communications (Paytm), Bharat Petroleum Corporation and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

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.

In terms of the market value, Tata Consultancy Services added the most in terms of market value, followed by Infosys, HCL Technologies and State Bank of India. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki India, Nestle India and Bharti Airtel lost most of their market cap.

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

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

The Indian rupee has recovered this week as the INR gained 39 paise versus USD, to end at 83.00 in the week ended December 15 against December 8 closing at 83.39.