By Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares hit record highs on Monday, lifted by expectations of increased foreign inflows after last week’s rate cut by the US Federal Reserve fueled risk-on sentiment among investors.
The Nifty 50 index and the S&P BSE Sensex both rose about 0.4% each to hit record highs as of 9:48 a.m. IST.
The benchmark indexes have scaled all-time peaks every day since the Fed cut rates by 50 basis points on Sept. 18.
“Post the rate cut by the Fed, foreign portfolio investors have turned aggressive buyers of Indian equities, which is a positive,” said G Chokkalingam, founder and head of research at Equinomics Research.
“There is further headroom for the benchmarks Nifty and Sensex. Besides Fed, steady monsoons and strong macroeconomic growth should continue to propel market further,” Chokkalingam said.
All the 13 major sectors logged gains.
Pharma and state-owned companies rose over 1% each, leading the sectoral gains.
The broader, more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps rose 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively.
Among individual stocks, city gas distributor Adani Total rose 5% after securing financing worth $375 million, which it would use to expand its city gas distribution network.
Drug maker Glenmark Pharma jumped 7% after U.S. drug regulator issued form 483 with zero observations after an inspection at the company’s formulations manufacturing facility in Aurangabad in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Telecom services provider Vodafone Idea gained 10% after securing a $3.6 billion deal with mobile and network manufacturers Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung for supply of equipment over a period of three years.
Asian shares rose, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index trading 0.3% higher, helped by China trimming its repo rate to support its economy. [MKTS/GLOB]
($1 = 83.4680 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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