BENGALURU, Dec 15 (Reuters) - India's benchmark Nifty 50 and Sensex indexes rose to new all-time highs on Friday, potentially setting the stage for their longest joint weekly winning streak in nearly six years, as global rally extended on elevated bets of a U.S. rate cut by March 2024.
The NSE Nifty 50 index rose 0.58% to 21,306.05 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.54% to 70,898.30, as of 10:04 a.m. IST.
High weightage information technology (IT) index gained about 2% and was among the top sectoral gainers.
IT companies, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., jumped 4.5% this week, marking their best performance in a month.
The rise comes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged the risks of lowering rates too late, on Wednesday, which bolstered expectations of a 25 basis point (bp) rate cut by March 2024 and fuelled a rally across global stock markets.
Metal index gained 1.8%, aided by a jump in global metal prices as U.S. dollar came under pressure following Fed's dovish commentary on future rate trajectory.
A weak U.S. dollar makes metals cheaper to holders of other currencies.
India's Nifty 50 and Sensex have gained about 1.5% each this week, set for their longest joint weekly winning streak since January 2018.
The Nifty is set for its seventh consecutive weekly gain, adding 11.8% over the period, including Friday's rise, on strong domestic macroeconomic data, return of foreign inflows, drop in oil prices and a favourable global interest rate outlook
The benchmark has been in the overbought territory for 13 sessions, hitting record highs in 10 of them.
"The near-term market trend remains positive," said Nagaraj Shetti, senior technical research analyst at HDFC Securities.
There is a possibility of Nifty reaching the important resistance level of 21,550, Shetti added.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
