($1 = 82.1575 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)
(Updates closing levels)
By Bharath Rajeswaran
BENGALURU, April 5 (Reuters) - Indian shares advanced on
Wednesday, aided by strong quarterly updates from finance
companies and banks, while inflation concerns kept investors
cautious a day ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI)
monetary policy decision.
The Nifty 50 closed 0.91% higher at 17,557.05, while
the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.99% to 59,689.31. Both the
benchmarks have extended gains for a fourth session in a row,
the longest winning streak in four months.
Still, analysts expect domestic equities to be muted ahead
of corporate quarterly earnings from next week.
"Value stocks will win over growth stocks," said Saurabh
Jain, assistant vice president of research at SMC Securities,
identifying capital goods, private banks, hotels and
infrastructure as preferred sectors.
Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high
weightage financials and IT rising 1.14%
and 1.20%, respectively.
Bajaj Finance Ltd jumped nearly 1% and HDFC Bank
Ltd climbed 2.68% after reporting strong new loan
growth and deposits growth, respectively, in the previous
quarter.
All 10 stocks in the IT index rose, ahead of the earnings
season that kicks off next week.
Multinational conglomerate Larsen & Toubro gained
over 4% after securing orders worth $852 million, while FMCG
major ITC jumped nearly 2% after Axis Securities
identified it as a top pick.
Inflation concerns kept a lid on market optimism, however,
with the World Bank lowering its forecast for India's economic
growth in fiscal 2024 to 6.3% from 6.6%, citing higher borrowing
costs and weakness in consumption.
Investors now await the RBI's rate decision on Thursday.
Economists expect the central bank to raise rates by 25 basis
points (bps) and then pause for the rest of the year, a Reuters
poll showed.
The RBI raised rates by 250 bps to 6.50% in the previous
financial year.
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