MUMBAI: India's benchmark indices have posted their biggest weekly gain in nearly six years, capping a pre-Diwali rally of seven consecutive winning sessions that carried the Sensex above 81,000 and put the Nifty back over 25,000 for the first time in eight months.

Source: HDFC Sky

For the week ended Friday, 6 November, the BSE Sensex surged 6,568.49 points, or 8.82 per cent, to close at 81,028.02, while the NSE Nifty 50 vaulted 1,977.25 points, or 8.58 per cent, to settle at 25,030.35 — the strongest weekly percentage rise for both indices since February 2021, and the Nifty's largest weekly advance ever in absolute points.

The rally added about Rs 28.7 lakh crore to the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies during the week, taking the total to Rs 5,03,06,833.71 crore and back above the $5 trillion mark. Friday's closing session supplied the final push, with the Sensex gaining 1,718.01 points and the Nifty 493.75 points on Dhanteras.

Source: Dhanam Online

What powered the rally

Market reports attributed the surge to a combination of a decisive Democratic sweep in the US midterm elections on 3 November, a roughly 16 per cent collapse in Brent crude to near $99 a barrel, a 1.2 per cent appreciation in the rupee to 93.91 against the dollar, and heavy foreign buying — about Rs 35,781 crore of FII purchases over the last five trading sessions, including a single-day purchase of around Rs 15,000 crore on 5 November, reported as the biggest in nearly six years. Reliance Industries, which soared about 13 per cent in the week after its quarterly results, led the index heavyweights.

The weekly milestone is a summary of a rally this desk has reported session by session, including Thursday's 2,008-point Sensex surge and Friday's close at 81,028; the new development is the completed weekly record itself — the best since the post-Covid vaccination rally of February 2021. Sources: HDFC Sky, Dhanam Online and Moody's News via TradingView.