Indian stocks start Friday's trade with marginal gains

Indian stocks extended their gains from the previous session and opened Friday's trade with minor gains.

Indian stock indices have been rising for the past five weeks on a trot.

A slight moderation in inflation -- both in the US and India -- coupled with a fresh inflow of foreign funds into Indian capital markets has infused positive investor sentiments.

At 9.27 a.m., Sensex traded at 60,316.22 points, up 18.22 points or 0.03 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,963.25 points, up 6.75 points or 0.038 per cent.

"Some profit booking and diversion of money to fixed income may be considered as a short-term strategy. Buy on dips can be considered in high-quality financials, leading names in capital goods and autos," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On Thursday, the total market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies touched an all-time high of Rs 280.50 lakh crore supported by the recent consistent gains in domestic stocks.

In July, foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers after nine-to-ten months with a total purchase of equities worth Rs 4,989 crore. So far in August, they bought equities worth another Rs 41,024 crore, data showed.

Meanwhile, benchmark indices - Sensex and Nifty - rose nearly 10-11 per cent during the ongoing rally on a cumulative basis, thereby recovering largely the entire losses they witnessed so far in 2022. The latest rally in stocks made Indian investors richer by over Rs 25 trillion.

"Recent gains in Indian indices have been helped by a combination of factors including encouraging macro data, fall in commodity prices, slowing inflation that may lead to central banks globally softening their monetary policy stance earlier than expected etc," said Dhiraj Relli, MD and CEO at HDFC Securities.

"Return of buying by FPIs has also helped. The steepness of the rally from the lows of June 2022 without any major correction on the way has been beyond the expectations of most investors. This also reflects the relative strength of the Indian markets amidst the global turmoil."

Pertinent to mention here, the benchmark index Sensex touched the psychologically crucial 60,000 mark on Wednesday after more than four months.

(ANI)

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