Markets climb fresh highs on strong GDP growth
MUMBAI : Benchmark indices vaulted to record highs on Friday after India’s economy surprised the markets with a faster-than-anticipated pace in the December quarter, a momentum expected to continue led by large cap stocks. Banks, capital goods, and oil and gas stocks catapulted the Nifty index to a record high of 22,353.30 points, and the Sensex to 73,819.21 on Friday. This was driven by provisional domestic institutional investors buying of ₹3,814.53 crore and proprietary trader purchases of ₹618.58 crore, BSE data show.
Foreign portfolio investors purchased shares worth a net ₹128.94 crore. Investor wealth, in effect, increased by ₹4.37 trillion. “The impressive GDP numbers provide the ammunition to the bulls to catapult Indian indices to all-time highs," said Devarsh Vakil, deputy head, retail research, at HDFC Securities, underscoring the bullishness on the Street.
“The next upside targets to be watched are around 22,500-22,600 levels. Immediate support is at 22,200 levels." India’s GDP expanded at 8.4% in the December quarter, much ahead of the 6.6% median growth projected in a Mint poll of 17 economists, and almost twice as fast as the 4.3% pace recorded in the third quarter of FY23. For FY24, the statistics ministry on Thursday said it expected India’s economy to grow at 7.6%, ahead of RBI’s 7% projection.
The Nifty ended Friday’s trading 1.6% higher at 22,338.75 points, its highest percentage rise in six months. The Sensex climbed 1.72%, the most in over a month, to 73,745.35 points. The top five stocks that contributed almost three-fifths of the Nifty’s 355.95-point rally were ICICI Bank Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, and State Bank of India.
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