(Bloomberg) -- India stocks advanced, with the NSE Nifty 50 Index closing at a record high, on the expectation that the government's plans to spend big will haul the country out of its economic woes.
The Nifty advanced 0.8% to 12,282.2 at the close in Mumbai. The S&P BSE Sensex climbed by a similar magnitude to 41,626.64, about 200 points shy of an all-time high.
The Nifty has had a positive January in five out of the last 10 years. The benchmark stock gauge rose 12% in 2019, even as India's economy grew at the slowest pace in more than six years, suggesting that investors have largely priced in a slowdown.
As activity picks up again across markets globally, focus will shift to the companies and sectors that will benefit from government spending and next month's budget presentation.
Strategist View
While foreign institutional investors will be shuffling their portfolios ahead of the budget, “no one is going to take considerable money off the table” as they weigh their options, said Umesh Mehta, head of research at Samco Securities Ltd.
The Numbers
- Seventeen of 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd. rose, led by a gauge of basic materials companies
- Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index advance, while Ultratech Cement Ltd. had the largest gain, rising 4.4%
- Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. was the biggest drag on the index while Bajaj Auto Ltd. had the largest drop, declining 0.9%
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To contact the reporter on this story: Ishika Mookerjee in Singapore at imookerjee@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lianting Tu at ltu4@bloomberg.net, Teo Chian Wei
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