The Sensex and Nifty 50 have witnessed strong gains over the past week, bringing impressive returns to investors. 

On Tuesday, the Sensex crossed its psychological level of 60,150 points, while the Nifty 50 approached the 17,750 level. Indian domestic equities have been on a winning streak since March 29th, gaining in all seven trading sessions since then. During this period, BSE-listed firms’ market capitalisation has increased by more than ₹12.56 lakh crore.

As of April 11th, BSE-listed equities’ market capitalisation stands at over ₹264.51 lakh crore, up from ₹263.13 lakh crore on April 10th. The gain in market capitalisation over the past week can be attributed to several factors. Positive monthly auto sales data, higher-than-expected PMI manufacturing data, strong quarterly bank and NBFC numbers, and a cut in windfall tax are some of the key driving factors. 

The Reserve Bank of India’s surprising decision to pause on interest rate hikes after 11 months was also a game changer. The central bank kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.5% while factoring inflation downward at 5.2% for the fiscal year FY24, with GDP growth projected at 6.5%. These factors provide comfort to equity investors, despite concerns such as Fed rate hikes, US job data, inflationary pressures, and global banks’ liquidity crunch.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said that banking and auto stocks are leading the positive territory, with expectations of strong quarterly earnings following robust business updates. Nair also mentioned that the forthcoming CPI inflation data due on Wednesday is expected to remain below the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6%. Meanwhile, in the United States, inflation is projected to decline further from its current level of 6%.

In terms of gold prices, they rose today as the US Federal Reserve decides on the extent of interest rate hikes in its monetary policy based on inflation data. The dollar index fell by 0.1 per cent, and investors are now awaiting inflation data. Asian markets opened higher today after gold prices ended Monday’s trade higher. The US markets were lacklustre overnight, while major Asian and European markets ended over a per cent higher.

The Sensex and Nifty extended their winning streak into the seventh consecutive session on April 11th, with banking, financial, and metal stocks clocking healthy gains. The markets opened 182 points higher at 60,028.60, rose 421 points to hit the intraday high of 60,267.68, and closed at 60,157.72, up 311.21 points or 0.52%. 

The Nifty 50 climbed by 98.25 points or 0.56% to close at 17,722.30. Investors are optimistic about healthy fourth-quarter earnings, easing inflation, a pause in rate hikes by the RBI, the return of foreign portfolio investors, and improving macroeconomic indicators. As of April 11th, the market value of the Mumbai Stock Exchange is ₹264.5 lakh crore rupees, up by ₹12.6 lakh crore rupees in the last 7 days.