India's key benchmarks advanced over 1% on Monday, helped by a recovery in financials, strong earnings, and on improved sentiment following robust economic data from the United States.
The Nifty 50 closed 1.08% higher at 18,264.40, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.16% to 61,764.25. Both benchmarks posted their best single-day gains in over a month. Eleven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced, with high weightage financials rising 1.5%. Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank also gained nearly 1.5% each. 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 from their merged entity. On Monday, IndusInd Bank Ltd rose nearly 5% and was among the top Nifty 50 gainers. The private lender's stock shed over 5% on Friday after the resignation of the chief risk officer. Global brokerage firm Jefferies said the exit should not warrant such a price correction and reiterated its "buy" rating. 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 for research at Mehta Equities. Analysts expect the Nifty 50 to consolidate in the near-term with resistance seen near 18,200 levels. Among individual stocks, Marico Ltd jumped over 7.5% after posting a 20% jump in March-quarter profit. One 97 Communication Ltd , Paytm's parent, climbed 5% after reporting a narrower loss in the fourth quarter. On the other hand, Coal India Ltd lost 2% and was among the top Nifty 50 losers following a 17% fall in quarterly profit on higher provisions for wage hikes. ($1 = 81.7330 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
