Markets' winning run enters 6th month; Sensex, Nifty up nearly 3% in July

The Sensex and the Nifty50 gained nearly 3 per cent, each, in July and with it, the benchmark indices have now finished in the green for five consecutive months — their longest monthly winning run in nearly two years. Between March and July, the Nifty50 has added 2,437 points, or 14.1 per cent while the Sensex has surged 7,566 points, or 12.8 per cent.

During its uninterrupted winning streak between May 2021 and October 2021, the Sensex had added 22.8 per cent (11,125 points).

The latest upward movement meant that this was the fourth straight monthly gain for the broader-market – the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 indices. In July, they continued to outperform the benchmarks.

The July up move has come on the back of robust inflows from overseas investors even as domestic funds have slowed their purchases. Since April, Foreign portfolio investors have pumped in Rs. 1.58 trillion ($19.2 billion) into domestic stocks. Mutual funds and domestic institutional investors have invested Rs. 25,392 crore and Rs. 28,731 crore, respectively, during this period.

Among the Nifty components, Cipla and NTPC were the best-performers, each gaining 15 per cent. In the top-500 universe, Mazagon Dock and Jyothy Labs gained the most -- at 52 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.

All sectoral indices posted gains in July, with NSE Nifty Media and NSE Nifty PSU Bank being the leaders while Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT remained laggards.