BENGALURU: India’s Nifty 50 is set to open at a record high on Friday, the last session of 2023, supported by robust macroeconomic data, foreign and domestic inflows, and expected cuts to global interest rates.
India’s GIFT Nifty was trading at 21,948 as of 8:15 a.m. IST, indicating the NSE Nifty 50 is likely to open above its last close of 21,778.70 and its all-time high of 21,801.45 hit on Thursday.
The Nifty and BSE Sensex have gained about 20% each this year, and are also on course for their best month of 2023 with 8% gains so far.
Both the blue-chip indexes are set to post their second-best year in six.
Meanwhile, small-caps and mid-caps have outperformed the benchmarks, gaining more than double that of Nifty and Sensex in 2023, despite valuation concerns.
All major sectors rose in 2023, with real estate , auto, pharma and state-owned banks advancing the most at between 33% and 81%. The Nifty 50 has hit new record highs in 15 of 19 sessions in December so far.
“The market looks stretched on valuations,” said Ashish Gupta, chief investment officer, and Shreyash Devalkar, head of equity at Axis Mutual Fund.
Financials drive Indian benchmarks to new record highs
“Positive developments such as robust inflows from foreign and domestic investors, strong macroeconomic data and controlled inflation-targetting regime held Indian markets in good stead,” added the two analysts.
Foreign portfolio investors bought Indian shares worth 1.65 trillion rupees ($19.85 billion) in 2023 so far, set for highest since 2020, while contributions into systematic investment plans, in which investors make regular payments into mutual funds, hit fresh record highs in eight months till November.
Wall Street equities closed higher overnight.
Asian markets opened little changed.
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