The Indian benchmark indices continued the gaining momentum for the second consecutive week and rose to fresh all-time highs in the week ended December 2 amid positive cues including softening global inflation, reopening of China and falling US dollar, crude and commodities prices as well as strong FII buying. The US Fed’s indication of a slower rate hike in December monetary policy also aided sentiment.
For the week, the BSE Sensex rose 574.86 points or 0.92 percent to end at 62,868.5 and the Nifty added 183.35 points or 0.99 percent to close at 18,696.1. On December 1, the 30-pack Sensex and the broad-based Nifty hit their lifetime highs of 63,583.07 and 18,887.60 respectively. The BSE smallcap index rose 2.4 percent, with HLV, Sadbhav Engineering, Likhitha Infrastructure, Rico Auto, KBC Global, Jaiprakash Associates, Raymond, Cosmo First and Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar adding 20-31 percent. The BSE midcap Index gained 2.8 percent led by New India Assurance Company, Tube Investments of India, Aditya Birla Capital, Dalmia Bharat, Bharat Heavy Electricals and L&T Technology Services. The BSE largecap index added a percent led by Paytm parent One 97 Communications, Bandhan Bank, Zomato and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company. Among the Sensex companies, Reliance Industries added the most in terms of the market cap followed by Hindustan Unilever, Tata Consultancy Services and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki India, HDFC Bank and Bajaj Finance saw the highest erosion in their market cap. (Disclaimer: MoneyControl is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.) All sectoral indices ended in the green. The Nifty media index gained 4 percent, the Nifty realty index 4 percent, the Nifty metal gained 3.7 percent and the Nifty FMCG index was up 2.4 percent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 15,067.55 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth of Rs 1,335.57 crore. The Indian rupee ended higher in the week ended December 2. It gained 37 paise to close at 81.31 to a dollar against its November 25 closing of 81.68.