Budget in mind, D-St bulls cross 'historic' milestone

Mumbai: India's equity indices closed at fresh highs on Thursday, with Nifty and Sensex crossing the 24,000 and 79,000 milestones, respectively, for the first time, maintaining their bullish momentum since the election results earlier this month, amid high expectations from the budget after President Droupadi Murmu's speech in Parliament Thursday.

Analysts said the sustained run-up in indices of late is part of the pre-budget rally, aided by renewed flows from foreign investors in June. The optimism, however, did not rub off on the broader market where there were more losers than gainers.

The Nifty advanced 0.74%, or 175.70 points, to close at 24,044.5, after hitting a lifetime high of 24,087.45.

The Sensex recorded a high of 79,396.03 before closing at 79,243.18, up 0.72%, or 568.93 points, over the previous day.

Both indices have gained 9.9% since the election results on June 4 in a near-uninterrupted rally.

“The markets are reacting positively in anticipation of a good budget with a focus on infrastructure spending and the allocation of key ministries is the same as the government’s previous term which is being perceived positively,” said Sandeep Raina, executive VP, research, Nuvama Professional Clients Group.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to announce the full FY25 budget next month.

“This budget will be an effective document of the government’s far-reaching policies and futuristic vision,” President Murmu told the new Parliament. “Along with major economic and social decisions, many historic steps will also be seen in this budget. The pace of reforms will be further accelerated in tune with the aspirations of people of India for rapid development.”

UltraTech Cement was the top gainer on both indices, rising over 5% on Thursday, having announced plans to acquire a 23% stake in India Cements. NTPC, Grasim and JSW Steel moved up 3.19%, 3.24% and 2.37%, respectively. Most IT stocks rallied with Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys rising over 2% each and LTI Mindtree gaining 3.58%.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 7,658.77 crore on Thursday, while their domestic counterparts sold to the tune of Rs 3,605.93 crore.

Analysts said heavyweight stocks in the Nifty index have started performing well and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have turned positive, a key supportive factor. Banking stocks are also rising after better-than-expected fiscal deficit numbers.

“The Nifty is likely to continue a gradual up move until the budget in July as part of the pre-budget rally since a lot of sectors have positive expectations,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. “There could be bouts of profit booking; however, the consolidation is not likely to be much.”