Data recap: Sensex, inflation, funding winter

livemint.com:

Mint in the week gone by. The Sensex closed above 70,000 for the first time on Thursday, taking 551 days to add the last 10,000 points, while inflation rose to a three-month high. Meanwhile, funding slowdown continued for India's tech start-ups, falling to a five-year low.

The Sensex hit the 70,000 milestone on the back of foreign institutional inflows. The benchmark index took 551 days to go from 60,000 to 70,000, much longer than the 158 days it took to go from 50,000 to 60,000. Nevertheless, the revival of foreign inflows after two months lifted sentiment, experts said.

While the market could take a breather, the outlook remains positive on strong growth and peaking interest rates. Even as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has left the policy repo rate unchanged since February, market expectations have created some dissonance with the central bank. The overnight index swap (OIS) rate, a remarkably good predictor of interest rates, rose during June-September, possibly spooked by the spike in inflation, an analysis by Plain Facts showed.

OIS rates have declined since then but remain significantly higher than RBI’s terminal repo rate of 6.5%. This shows markets are cautiously hopeful, but are not expecting a quick rate cut. ₹800 crore: That’s what Hindalco Industries will invest to set up a new plant near Sambalpur in Odisha to manufacture fine-quality aluminium foil used in rechargeable batteries, Mint reported.

The aluminium flagship of the Aditya Birla Group is expected to commission the plant by 2025. High-performance aluminium foils are used by cell makers as a current collector for cathode materials. The company will initially produce 25,000 tonnes of the product.