Indian Stocks Start New Week In Green; Sensex, Nifty Up 0.5%

Indian stock markets closed Monday's trade in the green, thereby snapping a two-day losing run.

Sensex and Nifty closed 0.5 per cent higher each. Among the Nifty sectoral indices, barring Nifty metal and Nifty realty, all traded higher with Nifty IT and Nifty pharma rising the most.

"Benchmark indices consolidated gains after a positive start on Monday. Nifty held on to the 18100 mark amid lack of follow-up buying in the second half. On the sectoral front, Nifty Auto, IT, Pharma stocks further drove the index higher. IT shares witnessed across-the-board buying," said Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head of Retail Research, at HDFC Securities.

According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services: "Market breadth tilted in favour of bulls lifted by financial stocks, amid positive cues from global peers. Strong corporate earnings reported by banks boosted the appetite for financial stocks. Positive global markets owing to the possibility of a less aggressive rate hike further added colour."

Despite today's gains, analysts are generally bearish on the prospect of slowing global economic growth this year, as well as the latest withdrawal of funds from Indian stocks by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have sold assets worth Rs 15,236 crore in Indian stock markets so far in 2023 (till January 20), the latest data from National Securities Depository showed.

Barring some exceptions, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) had been selling equities in the Indian markets for over a year, which started in October 2021 for various reasons.

In 2022, foreign portfolio investors overall sold Rs 121,439 crore worth of stocks in India on a cumulative basis, the data available on the NSDL website showed. (ANI)