Indian shares are set to see further gains from current record levels next week as foreign funds continue a buying spree led by optimism of strong economic growth, dealers said.
The benchmark 30-share Sensex index closed Friday at a new record 14,403.77 from its previous record of 14,282.72 on January 25.
The gains since the start of the year have been led by strong earnings reported for the quarter ended December with blue chip software shares all registering net profit increases above 40 percent from the same period a year ago.
Foreign funds have been fairly quiet so far this year, investing 112.6 million dollars in January against 805 million dollars in the same period a year earlier.
Finance minister Palaniyappan Chidambaram will announce the union budget on February 28.
On Wednesday, India's central bank Reserve Bank of India raised its growth forecast for the year ending March 31 to 8.5 to 9.0 percent from a previous eight percent.
The RBI also hiked its short-term borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to 7.50 percent to stem inflation which hit a near two-year high of 6.11 percent for the week ended January 20 from 5.95 percent the previous week and 4.24 percent a year earlier.