Nifty closed higher for 5th straight month in July

The Nifty closed higher for the fifth straight month in July'23.

The index oscillated 757 points before closing at 565 points (or 2.9 per cent) higher month on month at 19,754. The Nifty is up 9.1 per cent in the calendar year to date, a report by Motilal Oswal Financial Services said.

Midcaps/Smallcaps outperformed largecaps by 2.6 per cent/5.1 per cent in July'23. Similarly, in CY23YTD, midcaps/smallcaps have outperform largecaps and both have risen 20 per cent vs. a 9 per cent rise for the Nifty.

FIIs recorded inflows for the fifth consecutive month. FIIs remained net buyers for the fifth straight month at USD4.1b in Jul'23, year to date inflows stood at USD15.3b. DIIs turned net sellers in July'23 at USD0.3b, with YTD inflows at USD10.2b.

All major sectors ended higher in July'23: Media (+18 per cent), PSU Banks (+12 per cent), Utilities (+9 per cent), Real Estate (+9 per cent), and Healthcare (+9 per cent) were the top gainers.

Major economies end higher in July'23: Among the key global markets, Russia (+11 per cent), MSCI EM (+6 per cent), Indonesia (+4 per cent), Brazil (+3 per cent), the US (+3 per cent), India (+3 per cent), China (+3 per cent), Korea (+3 per cent), the UK (+2 per cent), and Taiwan (+1 per cent ) ended higher in July'23, while Japan (-0.1 per cent) ended lower in local currency terms. Over the last 12 months, the MSCI India index (+11 per cent) has outperformed the MSCI EM index (+5 per cent). Over the last 10 years, the former has outperformed the MSCI EM index by 185 per cent, the report said.

India's share in the global market cap climbed to 3.4 per cent. India's share in global market cap stood at 3.4 per cent, above its historical average of 2.6 per cent. Over the last 12 months, while the global market cap increased 8.2 per cent (USD8.4t), India's market cap surged 12.5 per cent. Barring Russia and China, all key global markets witnessed a rise in market cap over the last 12 months, the report said.

The 1QFY24 corporate earnings so far have been in line with performance of heavyweights, such as Tata Motors, BPCL, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank, driving the aggregate, the report said. The spread of earnings has been decent with 65 per cent of Universe either meeting or exceeding profit expectations. However, growth has been led only by BFSI and Auto, while the O&G sector reported a 2.6x surge in profit YoY, underpinned by the improvement in marketing margins of OMCs.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in)