Indian equity benchmarks re-bounded smartly on Monday, snapping a three-day losing streak with investors hopeful of a resolution to the US government shutdown and cheered by decent corporate results. The sentiment was boosted by rallies in most Asian markets. IT and banking stocks were in favour.
Late last week, Goldman Sachs upgraded India to an ‘Overweight’ within its Emerging Markets and Asian allocation. “We expect NIFTY to reach 29,000 by end-2026, which implies a 14% upside, led largely by underlying 14% trend earnings growth in 2026/27,” the brokerage said.
The Sensex closed the session at 83,535.35, up 319.07 points or 0.38% after surging 538.21 points (0.65%) in intra-day trades. The broader Nifty closed at 25,574.35, up 82.05 points or 0.32%, hitting touch 25,653.45 intra-day. Investor wealth rose by ₹1.89 lakh crore to ₹468.20 lakh crore. In the previous three sessions, the Sensex and Nifty had declined 0.91% and 1.05%, respectively. In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index gained 0.62%, while the BSE Smallcap index slipped 0.28%. The overall market breadth remained negative, with 2,372 losers against 1,962 gainers on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The markets were supported by purchases from domestic institutions who picked up shares worth Rs 5,805 crore, provisional data from the BSE showed. On the other hand, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPI) were sellers offloading stocks worth $464 million. In November so far they have sold shares worth $153 million on the back of purchases to the tune of $1.3 billion in October.
Goldman Sachs observed, in its report, that Indian equities have been modestly up, 3% in dollar terms, this year in what has been one of the strongest years for Emerging Markets which have gained 30%plus. The Indian market’s significant underperformance – largest in the past two decades – was triggered by a mix of peak starting valuations and cyclical growth and profit slowdown expectations. That led the brokerage to downgrade its view on India in October last year. “As the year progressed and earnings cuts materialised, tariff headwinds soured sentiment further and led to large foreign de-risking. We now see a case for Indian equities to perform better over the coming year,” strategists at the brokerage wrote.
IT stocks led the rally on Monday with a 1.6% gain, buoyed by expectations of stability in demand followed by TECK, capital goods, pharma, and metals. On the other hand, realty and FMCG indices ended slightly lower. In Asia, South Korea led the gains with a 3.02% rise, followed by Hong Kong (up 1.55%), Japan (up 1.26%), and Taiwan (up 0.79%). Major European markets were also trading higher by up by about 2%.
