No stopping the bulls: Sensex, Nifty record sixth straight quarterly gains

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and the Nifty managed to log gains of around 7 per cent for the quarter ended September 2024, despite recording their worst single-day fall in two months on Monday.

This was the sixth straight quarterly gain for the domestic equity markets, the longest gaining streak in three years.

Between June 2020 and September 2021, the markets had gained for six straight quarters during the post-Covid-19 surge, underpinned by stimulus measures taken by global central banks.

During the latest upsurge, the Nifty has rallied nearly 50 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 and the Nifty Midcap100 indices have more than doubled.

 

However, during the latest quarter, the broader markets underperformed the largecaps as investors shifted focus to more quality-oriented stocks.

Since March 2023, India’s marketcap increased by Rs 216 trillion ($2.59 trillion) in market value, becoming the fourth most valuable market globally after the US, China, and Japan.

The six-quarter winning run for the domestic equities has been supported by strong institutional flows, with foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumping in Rs 2.95 trillion and mutual funds (MFs) Rs 3.85 trillion during this period.