The Indian stock market initiated the month of December with robust momentum, witnessing several stocks achieve new all-time highs and with others crossing significant market capitalization milestones. In Friday's session, a notable surge in FMCG, auto and banking stocks propelled the Nifty 50 to a historic pinnacle of 20,291 points, surpassing its previous record set on September 15, 2023, at 20,222.
The S&P BSE Sensex also neared its all-time peak of 67,927 points, concluding the previous trade at 67,481. Concurrently, the BSE MidCap index and BSE SmallCap continued their winning streak, attaining new record highs in Friday's session.
The mid-cap index rose by 0.70%, hitting a new high of 34,498, while the small-cap index soared by 0.86%, achieving a historic high of 40,718. Year-to-date, both indices have experienced impressive surges, exceeding 35%.
This robust rally is attributed to several factors, including strong economic growth, impressive corporate earnings, a decline in crude oil prices, and the increasing trend of retail investing along with Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) inflows.
The recently released GDP numbers for India on Thursday revealed a significant expansion of 7.6% in the September quarter of the current fiscal year, surpassing the expectations of analysts. This positive economic indicator has significantly boosted investor sentiment.
Moreover, a recent report by S&P Global Ratings titled 'China Slows, India Grows' foresees India's GDP growth rate reaching 7% by 2026, outpacing China's projected growth of 4.6%. The report anticipates a shift in the growth engine of the Asia-Pacific region from China to South and Southeast Asia, further contributing to the positive outlook in the Indian markets.
48 out of the 50 constituents of Nifty 50 ended the last week in green. Axis Bank led the pack with an impressive rally of 9.5%, reaching ₹1,104 and achieving a record high of ₹1,109
Other notable gainers included Britannia Industries, BPCL, Adani Enterprises, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Larsen & Toubro, all closing the week with gains ranging from 4.5% to 7%.
Bharti Airtel shares, on the other hand, crossed the significant ₹1000 mark on November 29, and in Friday's session, the stock recorded a new all-time high of ₹1,022 apiece.
Surging to a historic high, Bharti Airtel's stock has propelled the company's market capitalization close to the ₹6,00,000 crore mark. At its peak price of ₹1,022, the company's market cap reached an impressive ₹5,84,584 crore.
According to the BSE data, there are only nine Indian publicly listed firms with a market capitalization of over ₹5,00,000 crore, and among these, Bharti Airtel secures seventh position.
Overall, 20 stocks hit new record highs last week. In addition to the individual stock performances, the Nifty 50 marked a substantial gain of 2.39%, representing the largest weekly increase since June 2023.
After two straight months of selling shares, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) turned buyers of Indian equities in November as US Treasury bond yields declined after rising to a peak in October. FPIs bought Indian equities worth ₹9,001 crore after selling shares worth ₹24,548 crore in October and ₹14,767 crore in September, data with the depositories showed.
Following FPI turning buyers again in November, the Indian equity market ended the month with strong gains, with Nifty 50 recording a gain of 5.52%, the best monthly gain since July 2022.
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"Going forward, FPI response will be crucially determined by the market trend, which, in turn, will be influenced by the state election results. If the state election results turn out to be favourable for the ruling dispensation, the market will stage a rally," said Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
"FPIs are unlikely to miss that rally by big selling. They might buy into financials where the valuations are fair. However, since overall market valuations have reached high levels, FPIs may turn sellers at higher market levels," he added.
Five Mainboard IPOs hit the exchanges last week, marking a significant trend of robust market activity. Among these, three IPOs stood out by listing with over a 50% premium to their respective issue prices.
Notably, Tata Technologies made a remarkable market debut on Thursday, November 30, opening at ₹1,200, a substantial 140% higher than its issue price of ₹500. The stock closed its first day of trading at ₹1,313, reflecting an impressive 162.6% premium to the issue price. Tata Tech's listing was not only the best of 2023 but also the most remarkable since November 2021.
Similarly, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency shares were listed at ₹60 apiece, demonstrating an impressive 87.5% premium compared to the IPO price of ₹32. Additionally, Gandhar Oil Refinery (India) and Flair Writing Industries shares witnessed premiums of 78.3% and 48.3%, respectively, over their issue prices.
However, Fedbank Financial Services shares had a more subdued listing, gaining a marginal 0.2% at ₹140.3 apiece compared to the issue price of ₹140.
Brent crude futures experienced another volatile week, dropping by 1.60% to reach $79.19 per barrel, while WTI crude futures saw a decline of 1.95% to $74. This drop came after even the OPEC output cuts announced Thursday failed to dispel the market’s gloom over swelling global supplies.
On November 30, OPEC+, a group of major oil-producing nations led by Saudi Arabia, agreed to extend their output cuts. The alliance announced roughly 900,000 barrels a day of additional oil output cuts from January, but the curbs are largely voluntary, and Angola has already rejected its quota. Saudi Arabia will prolong its separate 1 million barrel-a-day curb through the first quarter, Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, Brazil, which has contributed to the increase in global supplies, said it would join the OPEC alliance cooperation charter next year but won’t be taking part in any production cuts for now, according to the report.
According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, in the upcoming week, investors’ attention will mostly be directed towards the release of service PMI data from the U.S., India, and China.
Further, "the RBI policy meeting; anticipate the status quo; however, the growth outlook might be positively tweaked. The gradual return of FIIs in November signals positive momentum to continue, "he added.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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