Nifty gains for 11th straight session to post longest winning streak in 16 years

Closing Bell: The domestic stock market continued the strong positive momentum pushing the bourses to hit fresh record highs driven by heavy buying in Oil & Gas, Information & Technology, and FMCG stocks. 

With Thursday’s move, the National Stock Exchange’s broader Nifty 50 index ended in green for the 11th straight session to post its longest winning streak in the last 16 years since October 2007. Nifty gained 100 points or 0.4 per cent up to settle at the record closing of 25,151.95. 

On the other hand, the Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) hit a fresh high of 82,285.83. The index corrected by nearly 150 points from the record levels to end at 82,134.61, gaining 349.05 points or 0.43 per cent on August 29. 

Tata Motors emerged to be the biggest winner of the day with nearly 4.2 per cent gains followed by Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserve, HCL Tech, and ITC which led the list of top gainers on BSE. 

"The party will continue in Indian markets as long as liquidity continues to be supportive. Investors are resorting to buying every dip, to benefit from the upward momentum," Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors told Reuters. 

Reliance Industries, the biggest company by market capitalisation, ended 1.51 per cent higher as its Chairman Mukesh Ambani made major announcements in the 47th Annual General Meeting of the company. Ambani announced that the company is focusing on integrating AI into all of its operations to boost its efficiency and plans to build the cheapest AI services for the Indian masses in years to come. 

Amid the strong positive momentum, Mahindra & Mahindra ended as the biggest laggard on Thursday followed by JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Tata Steel which also ended in red. 

In terms of sectoral performance, Nifty Oil & Gas recorded the biggest gain of 0.94 per cent along with FMCG, Auto, and IT indices which ended 0.72 per cent, 0.54 per cent, and 0.47 per cent higher respectively. Meanwhile, metal, pharma, and healthcare stocks ended largely in red. 

“Sectors such as IT, Pharma, FMCG, Consumption, and Metals have driven the market growth, supported by factors such as the depreciation of the Indian Rupee, rising food prices, and recent government initiatives in the Pharma sector,” said VLA Ambala, Research Analyst, Stock Market Today. 

The broader market indices exhibited mixed performance while small-cap and mid-cap indices ended marginally lower. "Investors should exercise caution in small- and mid-caps, where valuations are out-of-sync with fundamentals," Esquire Capital's Dasgupta said.