After the U.S. Federal Reserve held rates unchanged as expected but hinted at the likelihood of additional hikes later this year, Indian equities increased on Thursday, helped by a rise in consumer and pharmaceutical firms.
Both standards were just 1% off their peak values. On Thursday, the smallcap shares increased by as much as 0.43% to achieve a new 52-week high, while the midcap index reached a new record high.
According to Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president for retail equities research at SMC Global Securities, “not just the benchmarks, but the smallcaps and midcaps have seen tremendous run-up in the recent weeks.” “A small correction would only be healthy,” according to the prediction that the markets will pause.
Five out of the 13 key sectoral indices fell, with the high-weighted IT index falling by more than 0.5%.
After the Fed kept rates constant for the first time in 17 months but indicated that borrowing costs would need to rise, IT stocks, which are sensitive to interest rates in the U.S. due to the major portion of revenue derived from the nation, declined.
Stocks of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) increased by 0.6%.
According to SMC Global’s Jain, the increase of FMCG stocks has been assisted by a gradual improvement in rural demand and a decline in the cost of important raw materials like crude oil and soda ash.
With advances from 11 of the 15 members, the pharma index increased by more than 1%.
Shares of Apollo Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare increased by almost 3% and 2%, respectively, among individual stocks, after global brokerage JP Morgan began coverage of the securities with a “overweight” rating.