BENGALURU, June 30 (Reuters) – Information technology (IT) stocks helped India’s benchmark indexes hit fresh record highs on Friday, after robust economic data from the United States eased fears of a slowdown and improved broader sentiment.
The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) rose as much as 0.72% to hit a high of 19,108.20, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) rose 0.78% to 64,414.84 as of 10:05 a.m. IST.
Midcaps (.NIFMDCP100) and smallcaps (.NIFSMCP100) hovered around fresh record and 52-week highs, respectively.
All the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with the heavyweight IT index (.NIFTYIT) rising as much as 1.83%.
Infosys jumped 2.5% and was the top gainer on the Nifty 50.
IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from clients in the United States, and were propped up by strong economic data from that country.
An upward revision in first-quarter GDP, a surprise fall in jobless claims and positive results from U.S. Federal Reserve’s stress test have helped ease growth concerns in the world’s largest economy.
The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) has risen nearly 10% so far this quarter and is on course to log its best quarter since September 2021.
Analysts cited strong foreign inflows, cooling inflation, and steady corporate earnings growth as key reasons contributing to the rise in Indian equities.
“The current upward momentum could continue and the 19000-19200 band could be the next resistance for Nifty in the near term”, said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.
Among individual stocks, Power Grid (PGRD.NS) gained as much as 3.82% to a record high, after the company approved an investment proposal worth 1.64 billion rupees.
Shares of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCEI.NS) tumbled 10% after the company extended services of software vendor 63 Moons Technologies (63MO.NS) for six months at a higher cost.
($1 = 82.0972 Indian Rupees)
Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Nivedita Bhattacharjee
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
