Indian shares hit record highs; Nifty scales 19,000
Business
Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India's blue-chip Nifty 50 and Sensex stock indexes rallied about 1 per cent each to hit record highs on Wednesday, lifted by gains in some Adani group stocks and heavyweight financial stocks.
The Nifty rose as much as 1.03 per cent to a record high of 19,011.25 as of 1:55 pm IST, after struggling to breach the level last week amid hawkish central bank commentary.
The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.98pc to an all-time high of 64,037.10.
The Sensex had already hit a record high last week, while the Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap hovered around fresh record and 52-week highs, respectively.
Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with HDFC and HDFC Bank extending gains after announcing plans to complete their proposed merger on July 1.
Adani group flagship Adani Enterprises was the top gainer on the Nifty, rising as much as 4.6pc on a report that GQG Partners and other investors bought around $1 billion of additional stake in the conglomerate's firms.
"A combination of stable macros, resilience in underlying economy, and steady corporate earnings has drawn foreign investor inflows towards India," said Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research at William O'Neil & Co.
Foreign portfolio investors have bought 859.83bn rupees ($10.49bn) worth of equities in fiscal 2024 so far, after offloading 1.4 trillion rupees and 376.32bn rupees in FY22 and FY23, respectively.
The moves in the local indexes, however, contrasted with a sombre mood in Asian peers, where global growth concerns overshadowed the upbeat US economic news. The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped on Wednesday.
Analysts, however, cautioned that the market could consolidate again as valuations were at uncomfortable levels.
($1 = 81.9950 Indian rupees)
