India's benchmark 30-share Sensex stock market index is likely to top the 14,000 points level next week, led by expectations of sustained economic growth in coming quarters, dealers said.
The Sensex hit an all-time peak Friday of 13,857.81 on fresh overseas fund buying. The index has risen by over six percent in November and over 47 percent for the year, led by sustained overseas fund buying.
For the week to December 1, the Sensex index closed at 13,844.78, up one percent or 141.45 points over the previous week's close of 13,703.33.
"Despite valuations being stretched, buying momentum appears strong enough to push the index beyond the 14,000 level. We could, however, see some profit-taking ahead of this," said Hiten Mehta, a fund manager at Fortune Financial Services.
Official data released Thursday showed higher-than-expected 9.2 percent economic growth for the July-September quarter led by the manufacturing sector.
Indian shares have fully recovered from their sharp correction in early May.
They fell more than 30 percent on inflation worries, sliding from their previous record high in May to an intraday low of 8,799.01 on June 14.
Strong June-end quarterly corporate earnings and local and foreign fund buying have seen Indian shares gain since mid-July. Indian shares have risen by more than 37.2 percent from 10,085.91 on July 21.
Last year, the index climbed by 42.3 percent as India's booming economy drew investor interest. Foreign funds purchased a record 10.7 billion dollars of shares during 2005.
This year the Sensex has risen a record 47.3 percent, led by foreign funds, which have been net buyers of Indian stocks worth 8.84 billion dollars so far.
This is higher than the 8.71 billion dollars for the same period a year earlier.
Foreign funds have bought over two billion dollars-worth of Indian equities in November.
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