By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Information technology (IT) and auto stocks helped India’s benchmark indexes hit fresh record highs on Friday, after robust economic data from the United States eased fears of a slowdown and improved broader sentiment.
The Nifty 50 rose as much as 1.21% to hit an all-time high of 19,201.70, before closing at 19,189.05. The S&P BSE Sensex also gained 1.26% to settle at a fresh record of 64,718.56.
The Nifty 50 has risen over 10.5% in the three months ended June 30, its best performance since the September quarter of 2021.
The benchmark also logged its best week in over 11 months and extended gains for the fourth month in a row.
Analysts cited strong foreign inflows, cooling inflation, and steady corporate earnings growth as key reasons for the rise in Indian equities.
“The current upward momentum could continue and the 19000-19200 band could be the next resistance for the Nifty in the near term”, said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.
Midcaps also hit a fresh record while smallcaps hovered around their 52-week high.
Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with the heavyweight IT index and auto index rising over 2% each. The auto and bank indexes jumped to fresh all-time highs as well.
Auto stocks such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were among the top Nifty 50 gainers, ahead of reporting June sales data.
Infosys jumped over 3%. IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from clients in the United States, and were propped up by strong economic data from that country.
An upward revision in first-quarter U.S. economic growth data, a surprise fall in jobless claims and positive results from the Federal Reserve’s stress test have helped ease growth concerns in the world’s largest economy. [MKTS/GLOB]
($1 = 82.0972 Indian Rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
