Nifty Hits 19,000 For The First Time, All Sectors Touch Green
On Wednesday, the Indian stock market reached record levels, driven by robust increases in every sector. The benchmark index Nifty reached an all-time high of over 19,000, and the intraday high for the Sensex was over 64,000. Nifty surpassed the 18,887.6 record high it reached on 1 December last year.
The Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 both increased by half a per cent, indicating that the rally was supported by the larger market.
At 9:30 am, the Sensex was trading 180.64 points, or 0.28 per cent higher at 63,596.67, while the Nifty was at 18,868.35, up 50.95 points, or 0.27 per cent.
Experts shared their views on the Nifty touching the 19,000 mark. Amar Ambani, Group President & Head - Institutional Equities, YES SECURITIES said, “After almost a 7-month consolidation, the Nifty has surpassed the 19,000 mark and what’s more, all sectors in the green as well. Investors are massively turning positive on risk assets, taking comfort from the recent fall in inflation, anticipating the end of the rate hike cycle. Even if inflation remains sticky at these lowered levels, it is much better to be invested in assets rather than stay in cash and see inflation eat into your purchasing power.”
Ambani further added, “Our own sense is that the recent price drops look sustainable, because they seem to have come on the back of reinstatement of disrupted supply, rather than demand destruction. The supply chain index that we track is back to pre-Covid level. Global Central bankers are close to the peak of their rate hike cycle. 20 out of 23 countries tracked on Bloomberg, may begin to see rate cuts in 2024. The Indian government’s thrust of infrastructure, including digital public infra, and pick up in private consumption through rise in credit offtake, will help the India story chug along. Nifty earnings kicker will come from expansion in margins, as companies keep some part of the gain from falling input costs, and strong results from Banks and NBFCs.”
The broad-based participation in this rally, strength in midcaps, positive moves in high beta sectors, suggests that there is significant strength in this market. Valuations are reasonable at 15.8x FY25 earnings and we expect 2023 will be a robust year for the Indian stock market."
Mukesh Kochar, National Head - Wealth at AUM Capital Market said, “India has emerged as one of the sweet spots as far as investment by FPIs is concerned. They are consistent buyers and have supported the market. At the same time, regular incremental flow from SIP, provident fund & pension fund is also huge. SIP is growing consistently and is currently above 14k cr per month. Domestic Institutions and mutual funds are becoming bigger and bigger. Post covid we have seen a very big change in most of the business houses. Most of them have created separate family offices and kept the business separate from those family offices. This money is huge and most of it is equity money. PMS /AIFs are growing heavily due to contributions from these family offices. Earnings in some sectors are also catching up and the June quarter is expected to be better.”
He added, “All these factors are contributing towards the all-time high nifty. We believe that these flows will continue as India should continue to attract FPIs money due to its advantage compared to its peer emerging market economies like China, Korea, or Taiwan. These economies have their own challenges like pollution, geo-political risk etc. A very small percentage of Indians are in the stock market or financial investors at this point in time. This number will keep on increasing and the kind of retail money that can come in the future is out of imagination. So by and large we are bullish over the long term. There are still huge pockets of opportunities in the market. But having said that, one should always know that the market is always volatile in the short term and small corrections are always expected. Investors should focus on asset allocation rather than timing the market and look for the bigger picture in the long term.”
