By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian benchmarks inched towards record highs on Monday, led by financials, with their gains in contrast to a drop in Asian markets ahead of key macroeconomic data from major economies.
The Nifty 50 index was up 0.53% at 19,925.20 by 10:00 a.m.
IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.48% to 66,930.93. Both the benchmarks are less than 1% shy of their record highs, hit on July 20.
The more-domestically focused small-caps and mid-caps gained over 1.4% and 0.8%, respectively and hit fresh record highs.
“The Nifty is likely to make another attempt at a new record high,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, but cautioned “some profit booking in small-caps is advisable as large foreign selling may re-emerge at higher levels.”
All 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains.
High-weightage financials rose 0.5%, while banks, public sector banks added 0.5% and 1.8%, respectively.
Financials had logged gains on Friday as well after the Reserve Bank of India said it would discontinue the maintenance of the incremental cash reserve ratio in a phased manner by October 7.
Asian markets were lower ahead of key macroeconomic data from China and the U.S. inflation reading, due later this week.[MKTS/GLOB]
Investors also await India’s retail inflation data for August and industrial output figures for July, due on Tuesday.
Retail inflation likely eased in August, from a 15-month high in July, to 7%, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Among individual stocks, sugar companies like Praj Industries, Balrampur Chini Mills, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries and Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries gained between 3% and 14%, on the launch of a global biofuel alliance at the G20 summit to boost the use of cleaner fuels.
SJVN climbed 8% on signing a power purchase agreement with Bhakra Beas Management Board.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
