EconomyMarkets
Nifty back above 23,000 as pharma shares and foreign buyers end Dalal Street's losing run
The Sensex gained 1,335 points in a week that brought India's biggest listing, a steady Fed and the first week of net foreign buying in more than two months. Smaller companies rallied hardest.
Key points
- The Sensex rose 1,335.70 points, or 1.83%, over the week to 74,459.53, and the Nifty 50 closed at 23,053.10.
- Foreign investors were net buyers for the week for the first time in ten weeks, provisional exchange data showed.
- Pharma led the gains while Suzlon Energy slid nearly 8% on Friday after cutting its guidance.
Indian shares ended October’s last full trading week on a high. The Nifty 50 closed on Friday at 23,053.10, back above 23,000, after a late-week rally led by drug makers. The Sensex finished at 74,459.53, up 308.49 points on the day.
Over the week the Sensex gained 1,335.70 points, or 1.83%, from its close of 73,123.83 on 23 October. The Nifty rose about 2%, or 453 points. Smaller companies, battered the week before, bounced harder still, with the main small-cap indices up more than 4%.
The day that turned it
The week began quietly. The Nifty edged lower on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, slipping 0.22% to 22,698.85 on the day Jio Platforms made its stock market debut. The shift came on Thursday, when the Sensex jumped 905.01 points to 74,151.04 and the Nifty added 237.90 points.
The US Federal Reserve had kept its rates on hold the night before, as markets had expected, and buying spread from large companies to the rest of the market. On Friday technology shares took over: the Nifty IT index rose 2.32%, with Wipro and Infosys among the Nifty’s top gainers.
Pharma in front
Drug makers and hospital groups led the week. The Nifty Pharma and Healthcare indices each rose more than 6%, with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Apollo Hospitals among the biggest gainers in the large-company indices. Laurus Labs jumped more than 7% on Friday after its September-quarter results.
Trent was the Nifty’s top gainer on Friday, rising 5.44% to ₹3,017.30, and Adani Ports also had a strong week. Shriram Finance was the weakest big name, falling 2.13% on Friday, while Reliance Industries and Coal India ended the week lower. Oil and gas was the only sector to fall.
Foreign money returns
The clearest change was in who was buying. Foreign institutional investors bought a provisional net ₹3,598.54 crore of shares on Friday, a day after selling ₹943.60 crore. Over the week their net buying came to ₹6,304.67 crore by provisional exchange data, ending nine weeks of selling. Domestic institutions sold ₹817.51 crore on Friday after steady buying earlier.
The return came even as oil stayed expensive. Brent crude remained above $113 a barrel into Friday on tension in West Asia, and the rupee held near 95 to the US dollar through the week.
The week’s losers
Not every stock joined in. Suzlon Energy fell nearly 8% on Friday to about ₹33.90 after cutting its guidance. Equitas Small Finance Bank shares dropped sharply after its managing director and chief executive resigned, and PSU bank and media shares were weak on the last day.
What comes next
November begins with the US midterm elections next week, a test that has hung over global markets for weeks. At home, the question is whether foreign buyers stay after a month in which they pulled out about ₹45,162 crore net, and whether oil eases for a market that depends on imported crude.