Indian shares rose on Wednesday, tracking a rebound in global markets after U.S. inflation data came in line with expectations, improving the odds of a smaller rate hike at the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting. The Nifty 50 index gained 0.43% to 17,115.85, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.38% to 58,121.45, as of 10:46 a.m. IST. Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials and information technology rising 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.
The rise in domestic markets follows a rebound in global
equities, after favourable U.S. inflation data bolstered bets of
a smaller 25 basis-point rate hike by the Fed, at its March
21-22 policy meeting.
"Markets are in a state of flux. They are oversold, so the risk-reward is attractive," said Atul Suri, chief executive of Marathon Trends - PMS, but he cautioned that "there are still clouds of uncertainties."
"India has had multiple hits recently. First, the Adani
crisis took the lustre away, now the banking crisis in the U.S.
and the Fed hiking cycle threaten to keep markets choppy."
Wall Street equities snapped a losing streak overnight, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.12%. Global equities had witnessed selling pressure over the last few sessions on fears of contagion from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States.
"For long-term investors, there are value picks available in the current market. But to bet on the markets having hit a bottom already is a bit premature," said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.
Among individual stocks, PNC Infratech rose over 3% after the company was declared the lowest bidder for a project worth 12.60 billion rupees.
NBCC (India) climbed 4% after securing a work
order worth 5 billion rupees.
($1 = 82.2600 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nishit Navin and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru;
Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Eileen
Soreng)
