Indian shares advanced on Monday, helped by a recovery in financials, strong domestic earnings, and on improved sentiment following robust economic data from the United States.
The Nifty 50 was up 0.81% at 18,215.75 as of 10:04 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.87%. Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials rising 1%. Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank also gained over 1%. The financials index recovered from a 2.34% drop on Friday, its worst day in over three months, dragged by Housing Development Finance Corporation and HDFC Bank, on concerns of foreign funds outflows in their merged entity. On Monday, IndusInd Bank Ltd rose nearly 5% and was the top Nifty 50 gainer. The private lender's stock lost over 5% on Friday after the resignation of chief risk officer. Global brokerage firm Jefferies said that exit should not warrant such a price correction and reiterated "buy". Global cues improved after U.S. jobs data for April brightened the economic outlook, temporarily easing concerns over the health of the economy and triggering gains in Wall Street equities. Asian markets inched higher. "Strong U.S. data has helped ease recession worries temporarily," said Prashant Tapse, senior vice president (research) at Mehta Equities. Analysts expect the Nifty 50 to witness consolidation in the near-term with resistance seen near 18,200 levels. Among individual stocks, Marico Ltd jumped 9% after posting 20% rise in consolidated net profit in March quarter. Paytm's parent, One 97 Communication Ltd climbed 5% after reporting narrowing of net loss in Q4. On the other hand, Coal India Ltd lost over 3% and was the top Nifty 50 loser after reporting 17% fall in Q4 profit on higher provisions for wage hike. ($1 = 81.7330 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
