Indian stocks start fresh week on a firm note

New Delhi [India], May 15 : Indian stock indices started the fresh week on a firm note with support from a range of fundamentals such as continued inflow of foreign funds, easing in inflation (both retail and wholesale), and global cues.
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed Monday's trade up 0.5 per cent each. Hero Motocorp, Tata Motors, ITC, Tech Mahindra, and Hindalco were the top five gainers, whereas Adani Enterprises, Cipla, BPCL, Grasim Industries, and Divis Labs were the top five losers.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have continued to remain net buyers in Indian stock markets for the third straight month after having sold two months on a trot in January and February, data from the National Securities Depository (NSDL) revealed. FPIs bought assets worth Rs 11,631 crore in Indian stock markets in April, according to NSDL data. In March, they bought assets worth about Rs 7,936 crore in Indian stock markets.
So far in May, they bought assets worth Rs 24,739 crore.
"Markets started the week on a firm note and gained nearly half a per cent amid mixed cues. After the flat start, the Nifty index inched gradually higher as the day progressed, however, profit-taking in the final hour trimmed the gains," said Ajit Mishra, VP - of Technical Research, Religare Broking.
"The rotational buying in heavyweights from the key sectors viz., banking, financial, auto and FMCG is helping the index to maintain a positive tone despite mixed global cues. And, indications are in favour of the prevailing trend continuing. Traders should align their positions accordingly and avoid contrarian trades."
Coming to wholesale inflation whose data was released today, it turned negative in April at minus 0.92 per cent, happening for the first time since July 2020. Overall wholesale inflation was at 8.39 in October and has been falling since then. Notably, the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation had been in double digits for 18 months in a row till September.
Meanwhile, retail inflation in India too eased sharply in April to 4.7 per cent or an 18-month low, as against 5.7 per cent the previous month.
India's retail inflation was above RBI's 6 per cent target for three consecutive quarters and had managed to fall back to the RBI's comfort zone only in November 2022.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services also said the positive note in the stocks was driven mainly by foreign fund inflows backed by improving market fundamentals.
"Domestic benchmark indices are marching ahead driven by favourable developments such as declining inflation levels, steady foreign inflows, and in anticipation of robust earnings growth on a QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) basis next quarter, due to drop in global commodity prices. The domestic CPI inflation (or retail inflation) came in better than expected at 4.7 per cent, and the WPI inflation decreased by 0.92 per cent, reaffirming RBI's decision to hold rate hikes," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
The decline in inflation numbers is likely to push RBI to keep its "pause" stance intact after its monetary policy tightening for a year.
The Reserve Bank of India, in its first monetary policy review meeting this fiscal in April, decided to keep the key benchmark interest rate -- the repo rate (the rate at which the RBI lends to other banks) -- unchanged at 6.5 per cent, to assess the effects of the policy rate tightening done so far.
Barring the recent pause, the RBI has raised the repo rate by 250 basis points cumulatively since May 2022 in the fight against inflation.
Raising interest rates is a monetary policy instrument that typically helps suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping the inflation rate decline.