Expectations of India outperforming its Asian peers set off a buying spree by foreign institutional investors (FII) on Tuesday, taking the Nifty and the Sensex to lifetime intra-day highs of 8,708 and 28,829, respectively.

The Nifty closed 1.69 per cent, or 145 points, up at 8,696 while the Sensex closed 1.85 per cent, or 523 points, up at 28,785.

“Quantitative easing liquidity from European and Japanese central banks is expected to have a trickle down effect on emerging markets like India in the wake of slowdown in the Chinese and Russian economies,” said Dinesh Thakkar, Chairman and Managing Director of Angel Broking.

Meanwhile the International Monetary fund (IMF) kept India’s future growth outlook unchanged. FIIs turnover hit ₹8,326 crore, with net buy worth ₹1,276 crore while DIIs (domestic institutional investors) offloaded net equities worth ₹762 crore. Retail investors on the BSE also were short, in the net, by ₹43 crore.

Volatility was down 2.14 per cent and the volatility index India Vix closed at 17.2725.

Analysts are both optimistic as well as realistic on India’s growth expectations.

“The policy rate is currently at 7.75 per cent and will likely decline over the next 12-24 months in conjunction with lower inflation,” said Sanjeev Prasad, Senior Executive Director & Co Head (Strategy) - Institutional Equities, Kotak Securities, in his strategy report.

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