With all eyes on the budget, India's Nifty records its longest monthly losing streak in 23 years.

India's Nifty has seen its longest monthly losing streak in 23 years; all eyes are on the budget.

By Rajeswaran Bharath

January 31 (Reuters) - A day ahead of the government budget, investor confidence caused India's equity indexes to rise on Friday. However, large foreign sales and worries about corporate results in a weakening economy caused the Nifty 50 to close January with its worst monthly losing streak in over 23 years.

The BSE Sensex increased 0.97% to conclude at 77,500.57, while the Nifty 50 closed 1.11% higher at 23,508.40.

For the past four consecutive months, the Nifty has dropped 9%. By the end of September, it had reached a record high.

Analysts predicted that measures to promote growth while maintaining budgetary restraint would be included in India's fiscal year 2025–2026 budget, which is scheduled on Saturday at approximately 11 a.m. IST.

India's economy is expected to rise 6.3%–6.8% in 2025–2026, according to a government estimate released on Friday. This indicates that economic conditions would remain slow, with growth expected to sag to a four-year low of 6.4% in the current fiscal year.

"A growth-oriented budget free from unforeseen policy shocks is what investors are looking for," stated Krishna Appala, senior research analyst at Capitalmind Research.

The debt and FX markets in India will be closed on Saturday, while the equities markets will be open for regular trading.

Shares of Larsen & Toubro, a bellwether in the infrastructure industry, increased by more than 4% on the day after its orders hit a record high due to robust performance in its foreign operations.

Despite missing quarterly earnings projections, consumer company Nestle India increased 4.3% as analysts predicted that the industry's toughest days were behind it.

Anticipating higher financial allocations, state-owned businesses saw a 2.6% increase.

Following a twofold increase in quarterly net profit, Punjab National Bank, a public sector lender, saw a roughly 5% boost in value.

Twelve of the thirteen major sectors saw a dip for the month, with real estate suffering the worst losses at a 12.5% decrease.

The smaller, more domestically oriented smallcaps saw their biggest monthly decrease since May 2022, falling around 10%.

The midcaps had their worst performance since October 2024, falling 6%.

Analysts blamed high valuations for the decline in smallcaps and midcaps.

(Bharath Rajeswaran reported from Bengaluru; Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Varun H K, and Mrigank Dhaniwala edited.)