September began with an impressive rally on Monday morning, with Sensex gaining more than 423 points to hit a session-high of 80,233.22 while Nifty rose to 24,560.85, up 124 points.
Market watchers said that a mix of factors led to the recovery run, starting with the latest government data for April-June, which revealed that the Indian economy grew by a better-than-expected 7.8 per cent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence at the SCO Summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian Premier Vladimir Putin hinted at India pushing back at American bullying, turning investor sentiment to positivity.
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Infosys was the biggest gainer of the Sensex in morning trade. Both Tech Mahindra and TCS were also among the top gainers, along with Power Grid, Mahindra and Mahindra, Asian Paints, Trent, and Adani Ports.
Sun Pharma continued its dip as the biggest laggards, along with ITC, Reliance, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank, and Hindustan Unilever in the 30-pack benchmark index.
Over the weekend, the Centre posted a 7.8 per cent GDP growth in the April-June period, the fastest in the past five quarters.
Analysts now expect the proposed GST reforms to lift growth in the upcoming quarters.
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“This, along with the huge liquidity coming into mutual funds, will continue to support the market,” V.K. Vijayakumar of Geojit Investments pitched in.
“The coming together of China, India, and Russia can have profound consequences on global power equations and thereby on global trade. This will have an impact on the stock market too,” he said.
Domestic investors continued to lift the markets despite the exodus of “West-friendly” foreign investors. On Friday, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 8,312.66 crore, but Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought Rs 11,487.64 crore of stocks.
Despite the rally, the rupee continued to slide, depreciating 17 paise to 88.26 against the dollar in early trade on Monday, as persistent foreign fund outflows weighed on investor sentiments.
The RBI on Friday also revealed that India’s forex reserves slumped by $4.386 billion to $690.72 billion during the week ended August 22.
