New Delhi [India] : Indian stock indices continued to remain green as they built on the previous week's sharp gains.
Benchmark Sensex and Nifty were 0.7 per cent higher this morning. Last week, the indices accumulated around 3 per cent each, their highest in months. Notably, Sensex today crossed 65,000 markets for the first time.
HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the top gainers this morning after their merger. JSW Steel, Ultratech Cements, and Grasim Industries were gainers among the Nifty 50. "The ongoing rally in global stock markets is primarily driven by the surprising and unexpected strength of the U.S. economy ( 2 per cent GDP growth in Q1 23), in spite of the savage 500 basis points rate hike by the Fed," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. "Global markets which had discounted a US recession by mid-2023 have been proved wrong and the markets are now compensating for the excessive pessimistic discounting in 2022."
An important point of distinction between the rally in the US and in India is that the rise in the former country is primarily being led by tech stocks while here it is more "broad-based". Continued foreign fund inflow in Indian stocks too buoyed the indices. "Since the strength of the market momentum is high, the rally can continue; but valuations are getting stretched," Vijayakumar added.
Meanwhile, Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd, recommended maintaining the "buy on dips" approach for investors as range seen in the 19,350-19,500 zone for Nifty
