Nifty crosses 18,000 for the first time. What is driving the rally in Indian markets?

Here are 10 updates from the Indian markets:

Reliance Industries, or RIL, has risen 1% after the Mukesh Ambani-led company said it would buy Norwegian-headquartered solar panel maker REC Solar Holdings for $771 million and up to 40% stake in India’s Sterling and Wilson Solar.

The Nifty Auto index was up 2.5% while the banking index rose 1% on hopes of a strong festive season.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) parent Tata Motors rallied 8.5%, the highest since January 2018, and topped the Nifty 50 index. After rising 16% in September, the stock is up about 23% this month.

Tata Motors on Friday said that JLR’s global retail orders are at record levels.

Nifty’s IT index was the major loser with Tata Consultancy Services falling over 4%, falling 6% on lower-than-expected earnings.

“If Nifty can sustain 17,950 depending on the close, then Nifty should be taken to 18200 as the next pit stop. The updated support for the week is 17800. This creates a good risk/reward ratio and hence Dips or intraday corrections can be used to enter new long positions, says Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst at Deen Dayal Investments.

The Indian rupee, however, fell 17 paise to a low of 75.16 against the US dollar as rising crude oil prices and firmness of the US currency in the overseas market weighed on investor sentiment. On Friday, the rupee had closed at 74.99 against the US dollar. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital markets on Friday as they unloaded shares of value ₹64.01 crores as per exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.43 per cent to $83.57 per barrel.

On Friday, Indian stocks registered their best week in a month after the central bank kept key interest rates unchanged as expected and promised adequate liquidity to support the economic recovery.

Meanwhile, Asian shares and US stock futures climbed higher on Monday with China’s blue chip index rising 1%, while higher oil prices kept inflation concerns intact.