New Delhi, April 8: Indian stock indices started Monday's trade in the green and hit their fresh highs, extending positive momentum from gains it recorded in the first week of the new financial year that started on April 1.

At 9.23 am, Sensex was at 74,487.41 points, up 239.19 points or 0.32 per cent, while Nifty was at 22,571.60 points, up 57.90 points or 0.26 per cent.

Among the widely-tracked Nifty 50 stocks, 40 advanced and the rest 10 slipped at the time of the filing of this report, NSE data showed.

Also, US stocks finished higher on Friday after a strong jobs report also buoyed stocks back home in India.
Going ahead, India's retail inflation data for March to be released on Friday and heat wave alerts from the weather bureau will be keenly watched by investors, for fresh market cues.

Retail inflation in India is in RBI's two-six per cent comfort level but is above the ideal 4 per cent scenario. In February, it was 5.09 per cent.

Inflation has been a concern for many countries, including advanced economies, but India has largely managed to steer its inflation trajectory quite well.

"The coming week marks the beginning of the earnings season and the focus will be on the IT majors to start with," said Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd, in a note during the weekend.

Meanwhile, Mishra advised market participants should maintain their focus on the selection of stocks and suggest not to get carried away with the recovery in broader indices and stick only with the quality names.

"The Q4 results season will kick start results of TCS on the 12th. For IT companies, results will be tepid and, therefore, market response will depend on the management commentary.

Results of financials will be good and this can push up Bank Nifty higher led by banking majors like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank etc," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

(ANI)

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