Market weekly wrap: NIFTY50, SENSEX extend rally for 3rd week; PSU Banks top sectoral gainers

The Indian equity market extended its gains for a third consecutive week, ending November 13, supported by strong buying from foreign institutional investors (FIIs), volatility in crude oil prices, hotter-than-expected retail inflation and a rebound in US Treasury yield. The market investors’ sentiment was also weighed by corporate earnings.

Brent crude prices fell nearly 2.5% over the week, touching a low of $90.56 per barrel before closing at $96.13 per barrel on Friday. Although the brent crude oil prices began the week lower, recent remarks by US President Donald Trump that he would not hesitate to resume military strikes against Iran made the investors jittery.

Foreign investors’ sustained buying, partly driven by the anti-AI trade in developed markets, and evolving geopolitical dynamics in West Asia are among the key factors supporting the momentum in Indian equities in the near term.

The foreign portfolio investors (FIIs) continued with their buying spree in the Indian market, pumping around ₹84,291 crore into equities so far this month. Of this total, ₹45,319.60 crore was invested during the week beginning Monday, November 9, according to NSDL data.

Food inflation, measured by the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), accelerated to 8.94% in October from 7.74% in the preceding month, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Thursday.

The Indian stock market remained closed on November 10 on account of Diwali-Balipratipada. The equity market was operational for one hour on Sunday, November 8, to conduct a special Muhurat Trading session.

How the midcap-smallcap indices fared

Over the week, the broader market also staged a strong rally and outperformed the main equity benchmark indices. The NIFTY Midcap 100 and NIFTY Smallcap 100 soared 3.6% and 2.1%, respectively.

Sectoral watch this week

Within the PSU Bank index, Punjab National Bank (12.8%), Bank of India (11.2%), Bank of Baroda (9.4%), Union Bank of India (8.6%) and Punjab & Sind Bank (7.9%) emerged as the top weekly contributors.

The NIFTY IT (-3.2%) and NIFTY Metal (-0.2%) were the only sectoral laggards of the week.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 15.78 levels, tanking 11.2% for the week.