Amid volatility, domestic market sees sharp rebound from 2022 lows

Domestic stocks have seen sharp recovery from this year’s lows.

The benchmark Nifty plumbed the depths of 15,294 on June 17. The broader market Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 made multi-month lows the day after. Since then, the Nifty is up 9 per cent over mid- and small-cap indices — up over 14 per cent.

The broader markets tend to be more volatile than large-caps — they fall and rise more.

The latest upmove has been underpinned by positive foreign portfolio investor (FPI) flows. Also, a sharp fall in stocks seen last month turned valuations attractive.

July could be the first month since September 2021 to register positive foreign flows. Between October 2021 and June this year, FPIs yanked out a record Rs 2.55 trillion ($33.4 billion).

Flows this month are marginally positive. However, the optimism over the worst of FPI selling may be behind us is what is buoying investor sentiment.