By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s benchmark indexes registered record closing highs on Thursday, boosted by prospects of a U.S. interest rate cut in September which analysts said could trigger foreign inflows into domestic equities.
The NSE Nifty 50 rose 0.24% to 25,010.9, while the S&P BSE Sensex settled 0.15% higher at 81,867.55.
Both indexes hit all-time highs during the session, with the Nifty breaching 25,000 points for the first time ever.
Most Asian markets rose, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index adding 0.4%, after Fed Chair Powell spoke of a “growing sense of confidence” that rate cuts could start in September. [MKTS/GLOB]
“U.S. rate cut seems almost a certainty in September. It’s important to note that a gradual rate reduction will happen over four to six quarters, which could trigger steady foreign inflows,” said Deven Choksey, managing director at DRChoksey FinServ.
However, in the near term, Indian markets may only see incremental gains as profit booking is likely to continue at record highs, three analysts said.
Energy added about 2% and was the top sectoral gainer. Oil upstream companies ONGC and Oil India gained 2.3% and 3.7%, respectively after the government cut windfall tax on petroleum crude.
Upstream oil companies benefit from lower windfall taxes as it reduces the tax on their crude oil output.
Coal India gained 3.5% after it beat quarterly profit estimates. Coal India and ONGC were among the top three Nifty 50 gainers.
Maruti Suzuki jumped about 2% after beating June-quarter profit estimates.
The stock was an exception in the auto index which dropped 0.75% after Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra posted weaker-than-expected sales in July.
Meanwhile, the broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps dropped about 1% each, with analysts expecting selling pressure to continue in the segments due to elevated valuations.
($1 = 83.6723 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Varun H K)
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