Indian stocks rise in early trade, mark 5th straight week

NEW DELHI: Indian stocks extended their gains from the previous week this morning, pushed by consistent buying by foreign portfolio investors.

This marks the fifth consecutive week of gains for the Indian shares.

At 9.27 a.m., Sensex traded at 59,816.36 points, up 353.58 per cent 0.59 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,793.85 points, up 95.70 points or 0.54 per cent.

Among the Nifty 50 companies, 40 were in the green and the rest 10 in the red, National Stock Exchange data showed.

On Monday, the markets were closed on account of Independence Day.

In the meantime, retail inflation in the US and India has somewhat moderated, which improved buying sentiments amongst investors.

India's headline retail inflation fell to 6.71 per cent in July from 7.01 per cent in June, the lowest level in five months, helped by an easing in food and oil prices, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data released this Friday.

Benchmark indices - Sensex and Nifty - rose over 11 per cent in the past four weeks on a cumulative basis, thereby recovering the entire losses they witnessed so far in 2022.

In fact, the domestic equity markets marked their best week since February 2021 in July.

Notably, the latest consistent rally in Indian stocks has made investors richer by around Rs 21.8 trillion.

"Steady decline in retail inflation, Brent crude falling to USD 94 and steady buying by FIIs augur well for the markets.

However, high valuations are a concern. While remaining invested, investors must exercise caution chasing this rally," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

For fresh cues, investors will await July wholesale inflation data to be released later today.

For the record, India's wholesale inflation was at 15.18 per cent in June, marginally lower than the 15.88 per cent reported during the previous month.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation has been in the double-digit for 15 months in a row now.