Stock market at its peak, the journey will move forward

Amid massive selling by foreign institutional investors and an environment of international turmoil, the Indian stock market has reached alltime highs in the year 2023 as the BSE had touched the highest level of 72484.34 points with a gain of 18.74 percent and Nifty had touched the highest level of 21801.45 points with a gain of about 20 percent. Based on the strong state of the Indian economy, the growing confidence of Indian investors towards the stock market, the continuous increase in the number of investors in the country and the continuation of the reform agenda of the Government of India, it can be assumed that amidst the adverse circumstances, the journey of the Indian stock market will continue in the new year 2024 which starts from Monday. Foreign fund managers and top foreign investment institutions have already estimated two months ago that the Indian stock market will reach record heights in the year 2024. Looking at the current situation, there can be no doubt that there will be modest profits till the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Apart from recovery, there is a possibility of some kind of recession in the stock market. Indicative of a bright future for the Indian stock market are 48 out of 50 stocks included in the Nifty index that have gained in the year 2023, led by Tata Motors and NTPC. With the exception of Nifty IT, all sectors of the index have made record highs in the year 2023. In terms of sector, realty has grown at the fastest pace. Talking about midcap stocks, they have continued their journey of growth for almost four years under the leadership of REC and Power Finance, whereas if we talk about small caps, they have seen a growth of about 50 percent this year.

Indian stock markets took a turn again this week and recovered from the recession and once again moved forward on the bullish path. According to the data, last week there was an increase of 1133.30 points i.e. 1.59 percent in the BSE index and the BSE index increased from 71106.96 points to close at 72240.26 points, while the NSE index improved by 382.00 points i.e. 1.79 percent and the NSE Nifty index increased from 21349.40 points and closed at 21731.40 points. Similarly, there was good improvement in midcap and smallcap indices also. The effect of improvement in the market was also that foreign institutional investors (FII) purchased Rs 8648.96 crore last week, along with FIIs, domestic institutional investorsDIIs were also buyers in the market and DIIs purchased stocks worth Rs 666.06 crore. Talking about the bullion market, this week the price of gold improved by Rs 350 per ten grams to Rs 64900 and silver fell by Rs 1100 to Rs 75800 per kg. Traders are estimating a fluctuation of Rs 300-500 in gold and a rise in silver.

Regarding the market trend this week, traders say that there is an improving trend in the market, which will continue, but naturally there will be ups and downs. At present, businessmen find it safe to invest in public sector companies and infrastructure related companies. In their opinion, apart from SAIL, BHEL, BPCL, HPCL, GAIL, NMDC, HAL, shares of selected companies like IEX, Motherson Sumi, Hindustan Organic Chemicals, Nagarjuna Fertilizer and Shriram Properties show an improving trend, but if the sentiment remains weak in the market, then even the so-called good stocks may fall. This week, no new IPO is coming for investors on the main board and SME platform, whereas the two IPOs already opened on the SME platform will remain available for applications till January 3. Before investing in a new IPO, investors should decide to invest only after studying the financial condition of the company and the premium being demanded. On the other hand, among the new IPO applications coming to SEBI this week, three companies have presented their new draft herring prospectus DRHP.

This is the personal opinion of the author. The author, his family members and acquaintances may have investments in the companies mentioned in the article.

Vimal Kothari Associate Editor, First India News & Senior Journalist