Street's Best Week in Four Years Sees All-Cap Surge

FPIs net buyers in three of five days; FTSE index rejig seen attracting foreign funds

- Dipti Sharma

India's Nifty 50 and Sensex indices have logged their strongest weekly run since February 2021, gaining nearly 4% this week and offering much-needed relief for bargain hunters after plunging 14% from their September highs.

But the real stars were the Nifty Smallcap 250 and Nifty Midcap 100, which jumped 8% and 7%, outpacing their large-cap peers.

"We are moving from the suffocating highs of the Nifty 50 to more breathable territory. But is it a dirt-cheap bargain yet? Not quite—it still needs time," said Lakshmi Iyer, chief executive officer-investment and strategy, at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers. "I think investors will have to start cherry-picking stocks."

The markets will have their own trials and turning points, but it's important for investors to not get carried away by near-term factors as headwinds still outweigh tailwinds for now," she added.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas surged 2.25%, utilities (2.11%), telecom (1.91%), energy (1.86%), healthcare (1.56%), industrials (1.30%) and services (1.26%).

Another spark of optimism for investors came from the rupee, which strengthened to 85.97 against the US dollar this week, while the dollar index stabilized to 104.1.