Dalal Street witnessed an energetic surge in trading activity over the past week, with both the key indices scaling new record highs and bolstering investor wealth substantially. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex breached the 71,000 mark for the first time ever in intraday trading on Friday, powered by broad-based gains across sectors.
This rally added a massive Rs. 2 lakh crore to the overall market capitalization of BSE-listed companies. The positive sentiment was largely driven by favorable global cues and continued foreign capital inflows providing an extra boost. With the corporate earnings season also progressing smoothly so far, bulls retained an edge over bears.
The Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged and signal a slower pace of hikes going forward came as a relief to financial markets worldwide. This lowered worries of an imminent recession in the US economy, lifting risk appetite. Comments from the central bank chief reinforced expectations that borrowing costs may start trending lower from late 2023.
This pivot in the Fed’s monetary policy stance buoyed investor confidence globally. Asian peers also joined the party, with key indices in Japan, China and South Korea ending in the green. Back home, the positive overseas situation complemented domestic optimism fueled by increased retail participation and new listing activity.
Foreign institutional investors have poured over Rs. 3,500 crore into Indian stocks in just this month so far. Their willingness to deploy fresh capital despite ongoing geopolitical tensions and commodity price fluctuations underlined strengths in the country’s long term growth story. This influx of dollars primarily targeted heavyweight sectors like financials, IT and autos.
Among individual stocks, blue chips from the technology space stole the limelight. Strong demand fundamentals coupled with recent healthy Q3 numbers emboldened speculators to accumulate Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, Wipro and other Tier-1 names. Broader market indices like Nifty Midcap-100 and Smallcap-100 mirrored gains in their larger peers.
While concerns around inflation, currency and global recession risks still linger, the current rally lifted investor wealth to new high-water marks. This translated confidence provides a fillip to overall economic activity levels and augurs well for further market expansion. Recent performance highlighted resilience of our domestic bourses and reinforced India’s appeal as an attractive emerging market destination.
As we wrap up another winning week, enthusiasm is likely to persist unless external headwinds intensify sharply. Most analysts see the positive momentum sustaining over the near term, aided by ongoing foreign buying interest. Broader participation across industries suggests the bull run still has room to run higher in the New Year.
