The global dash: World's market sprint, India still at the starting block

Two-thirds of global indices race to lifetime highs - the widest run in 18 years - while Nifty stumbles at the line

Two-thirds of major global indices have set fresh lifetime highs in 2025. India is likely to join that list soon.

 

Last week, domestic equities hovered just shy of new records, with the Nifty 50 ending only 24 points short and the Sensex about 203 points away.

 

On a closing basis, the Sensex last hit a record of 85,836 and the Nifty 26,216 on September 26, 2024. On Friday, the Sensex closed at 85,232, while the Nifty ended at 26,068.

 

According to CLSA, this year has produced a roaring global bull market, with 65 per cent of leading country equity benchmarks reaching new highs. The brokerage says the only comparable stretch of broad market strength in recent decades came during the 2007 run-up to the global financial crisis, when roughly 70 per cent of country benchmarks climbed to new highs.

 

India, however, has been missing from this global upswing.

 

“India hasn’t participated in this global bull market and is one of the few markets still waiting to make a new high in 2025. That’s remarkable, given India’s record of marking new highs in 19 of the 25 years this century — the most consistent among major indices. A wait of more than 13 months is already the sixth-longest in 30 years for the Nifty benchmark to set a new lifetime high,” said Vikash Kumar Jain, strategist and head of research at CLSA, in a note.