India's benchmark indexes rose on the first day of 2025, led by auto stocks that were boosted by a rise in monthly sales for top carmaker Maruti Suzuki and peer Mahindra & Mahindra, reports Reuters.
The Nifty 50 rose 0.41 per cent to 23,742.90 points on Wednesday, while the BSE Sensex gained 0.47 per cent to 78,507.41.
Eleven of the 13 major sectors advanced, with the auto index rising 1.3 per cent.
Shares of Maruti Suzuki, which sells most cars in India, climbed 3.2 per cent after the company said sales to dealers rose about 30 per cent in December.
Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.4 per cent after its car sales rose 18 per cent amid strong demand for sports utility vehicles. Mahindra and Maruti were the top two Nifty 50 gainers by percentage.
India's blue-chip indexes rose to record highs early in 2024 but slowing corporate earnings and an exodus of foreign funds curtailed annual gains to about 8.5 per cent, the least among major global peers, and pushed the indexes into correction territory.
In 2025, the markets will be shaped by corporate earnings, India's upcoming federal budget, the policies of US President-elect Donald Trump's administration as well as the Federal Reserve's rate trajectory, Ross Maxwell, global strategy operations lead at trading platform VT Markets, said.
On Wednesday, the broader, more domestically focussed smallcaps and midcaps rose 1 per cent and 0.4 per cent, respectively.
Among individual stocks, two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto and tractor maker Escorts Kubota lost 0.7 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively, after posting a drop in December sales.
Meanwhile, power generation firm SJVN rose 6.2 per cent after signing a deal with a state government for energy storage projects.
