Indian stock indices off their record highs on profit booking

NEW DELHI: After multiple straight sessions of the rally, Indian stock indices traded marginally lower Friday morning, largely due to profit booking by investors and in line with weak global cues.

At 9.20 am, Sensex traded at 63,109.24 points, down 174.95 points or 0.28 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 18,762.50 points, down 50.00 points or 0.27 per cent.

The indices had hit their lifetime highs for the fourth straight day till Thursday. Sensex breached the 63,000 mark on Wednesday. From 60,000 to 63,000, the markets took 14 months time.

Robust foreign fund inflows into Indian equities, the appreciating Rupee, and hints by the US central bank about the moderating rate of interest hikes supported investors' sentiment.

The US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday (local time) hinted about moderating interest rate hikes in the next monetary policy meeting.

"The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting," Powell said at an event.

Coming to foreign funds, foreign portfolio investors purchased Rs 36,239 crore worth of equities in India in November, NSDL data showed.

Further, Rupee opened at 81.10 versus the previous session's closing of 81.22. For the record, in October, the rupee breached the 83 mark for the first time in its history.

"Going ahead 81.00 will act as strong resistance for a rupee; any breach above 81.00 rupee will see a sharp rally towards previous resistance of 80.00," said Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst at LKP Securities.

ICICI Direct, which is part of ICICI Securities, expects the Rupee to appreciate towards 80 levels by the end of this fiscal year 2022-23 ending March. "We won't be surprised even if it breaks the major support level of 80 and appreciates further till 79.00 as well.

We believe, the rupee may face a strong resistance near 83.50," Raj Deepak Singh, Analyst - F&O, Currency and Commodity at ICICI Direct had said.