The Zhitong Finance App learned that the Indian stock market closed higher on Friday, the benchmark index recorded the best monthly performance since July, and the local stock market became a safe haven from the sell-off of global technology stocks. The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.5%, and the small-cap index fell 2%. Nifty rose 2% this month and is a top performer in Asia's major benchmark indices. In contrast, the regional benchmark index fell by about 6% over the same period due to the sell-off in technology stocks affecting the market dominated by AI trading.
Nifty's monthly excess performance compared to its peers in emerging markets was the strongest since 2011, and the Brazilian and South Korean stock markets experienced sharp sell-offs during the same period.
India lacks significant tech hardware and semiconductor stocks, which has shielded it to some extent from global sell-offs. Meanwhile, overseas investors showed signs of an exploratory return, with net purchases of over $1.2 billion in Indian stocks this week ending Wednesday.
Inditrade Capital Chairman Sudeep Bandyopadhyai said, “India is known as an 'anti-AI transaction', and October gave the outside world a glimpse of this. But it's still too early to start celebrating. The biggest concern is oil. The price of oil is around 117 US dollars per barrel, which is bad for India. Unless geopolitical fundamentals improve, these market trends may only be temporary.”
High oil prices are putting pressure on the breadth of the market. The Nifty Smallcap 250 index fell nearly 6% in October, the worst performance in seven months; the mid-cap index fell 3.4%.
Thanks to Jio Platforms Ltd.'s major listing after the biggest IPO in India's history, India became the world's largest IPO market in October. According to market compilation data, Indian companies raised about 455 billion rupees (4.8 billion US dollars) through IPOs in the same month, surpassing the US 2.1 billion US dollars and Hong Kong's 1.5 billion US dollars as of Thursday.
Fast fashion retailer Trent Ltd. and airline Indigo were the main gainers in Nifty's 50 constituent stocks on Friday. Looking at the full month, Tata Consulting Services Limited and Infosys Limited led the way.
Despite this, Nifty fell nearly 12% during the year. In contrast, Taiwan's stock market rose more than 50%, and South Korea's Kospi index rose 36%.