India's Sensex hits all-time high, Nifty 50 eyes record

BENGALURU, June 21 (Reuters) - Indias benchmark Sensex stock index hit a record high on Wednesday while the Nifty 50 inched towards its all-time high, amid persistent foreign inflows into Indian equities backed by the countrys strong macro-economic print.

The S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) hit its all-time high at 63,588.31, before giving up some gains to stand at 63,418.93 at 10:46 a.m. IST.

The blue-chip Nifty (.NSEI) index rose 0.05% to 18,826.80.

\“Indias economy is in a multi-year upcycle which is a major positive. While there are pockets of overvaluations, pockets of opportunity also exist in markets,\” said Gaurav Dua, senior vice president and head of capital market strategy at Sharekhan.

\“The indexes may be at or near record highs, but the valuations are not, thanks to healthy earnings growth over the past 20 months.\”

Foreign investors have poured in 738.12 billion rupees ($8.99 billion) so far in this financial year. They were net sellers in the two previous fiscal years, with a record outflow of 1,400.10 billion rupees in FY 2022.

Indias economic growth has accelerated in the March quarter, while inflation has cooled, showing that the country remains one of the fastest growing emerging economies.

On Wednesday, nine of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high-weightage financials (.NIFTYFIN) adding over 0.6%.

Broader indexes continued to outperform their larger peers with the midcaps (.NIFMDCP100) rising 1.18% and smallcap index (.NIFSMCP100) gaining 0.8%.

Among individual stocks, Larsen and Toubro (LART.NS) rose over 1% and was among the top Nifty 50 gainers, after Morgan Stanley reiterated an \“overweight\” rating, citing strong evidence of progress in capex cycle.

Shriram Finance (SHMF.NS) jumped 15% to a record high after Piramal Enterprises (PIRA.NS) sold its entire 8.34% stake in the company.

Markets, meanwhile waited for U.S. Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powells testimony before the financial affairs committee of U.S. House of Representatives.

($1 = 82.0780 Indian rupees)