Markets hit 32-month high for 6th day, techs up
Markets hit 32-month high for 6th day, techs up
Mumbai: Indian shares topped 32-month highs for the sixth session in a row on Monday, boosted by surging foreign portfolio investments in the rapidly expanding economy.
Export-driven outsourcers led the rally with sector leader Tata Consultancy Services racing to an all-time high.
By 11:25am, the 30-share BSE index was up 0.88% at 19,767.34 points, with 25 of its components advancing.
The benchmark, which had risen 4.2% last week in its best weekly performance in 10 months, hit 19,795.84, its highest level since January 2008.
“There is huge foreign money flowing in and the outlook for these flows is positive," said Sanjeev Patni, president and head of institutional equities at Prabhudas Lilladher.
Foreigners had moved $1.7 billion last week into Indian equities, which were their preferred destination among regional peers, Nomura data showed.
Overseas funds have bought a net $15.4 billion of Indian stocks in the year to date and helped the main index gain 13.2% in the same period.
Patni said many foreign investors were yet to have a significant exposure to India, and they were expected to step up investments because of the country’s bullish growth outlook.
A surge in manufacturing output in July is the beginning of a new growth cycle, a top adviser said on Friday, after much stronger than expected industrial data surprised analysts and investors.
Tata Consultancy rose nearly 1% to 921.50 rupees, while rivals Infosys Technologies and Wipro were up 0.7% and 0.8% respectively.
“We remain positive on tier-1 IT companies on the back of significant market share gains against global incumbents," JM Financial said in a note on Friday, adding that Infosys was its top sector pick.
Cigarette-to-hotel business ITC climbed as much as 3.4% to Rs174, its highest level in at least 20 years, boosted by robust domestic consumption.
Hero Honda, the country’s leading motorcycle maker, rose 1.3% after a report suggested KKR & Co, TPG Capital, Carlyle Group and Bain Capital Llc are competing to acquire a part of Honda Motor Co’s stake in the company.
In the broader market, gainers were nearly twice the number of losers on volume of 215 million shares.
The 50-share NSE index was up 0.9% at 5,934.85.
Elsewhere, the MSCI’s measure of Asian markets other than Japan was up 0.4%, while Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday.
STOCKS
KSK Energy Ventures was up 5.4% at Rs182.25, after the utility said it had tied up $3.6 billion for its 3,600 megawatt thermal power project in central India.
Software services firm Hexaware Technologies jumped 7.2% to Rs77.15 after it said it had raised its revenue outlook for the third quarter.
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