By Manvi Pant
BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Nifty 50 rose for a thirteenth consecutive session on Monday, its longest-ever rally, powered by gains in IT stocks on hopes of a U.S. rate cut and as shares of consumer goods companies rose on a prediction of good monsoon rains.
The benchmark Nifty 50 index ended 0.17% higher at 25,278.7 points and the BSE S&P Sensex rose 0.24% to settle at 82,559.84. Both hit all-time highs.
Expectations of robust economic growth and rising inflows have boosted Indian stocks, analysts said.
Investors are parking money in IT stocks because of an expected revival in the demand environment and possible revival of discretionary spending with a probable rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve, Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer at Fident Asset Management, said.
The Nifty IT index gained 1% to hit a record high, boosted by Infosys and HCL Tech which rose 1.1% and 3.1%, respectively.
Markets are pricing in a 71% chance the Fed is likely to cut rates by 25 basis points in September, higher than a 68% probability a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool. They are also pricing in a 29% chance of a 50 basis point rate cut at the Sept. 17-18 meeting.
For the day, India’s consumer goods index rose 1%, driven by ITC and Hindustan Unilever, after the weather department said the country will receive above-average rainfall in September after surplus rains in August.
Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes ended in the green.
The annual monsoon brings almost 70% of the rain India needs to water farms and replenish reservoirs and aquifers.
Economic growth in India eased to 6.7% year-on-year in the April-June quarter but it remained the world’s fastest-growing major economy, data showed on Friday.
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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