Indian shares pulled back from an early slide and climbed 0.4 percent on Thursday as investors covered short positions in financial stocks that had fallen sharply over the past three weeks. Sentiment was helped after data showed food inflation eased for the second straight week in January, tracking lower fruit and vegetable prices.
Still, the outlook remained hazy with the central bank widely expected to raise key interest rates by 25 basis points next Tuesday. The 30-share BSE index closed 0.36 percent or 68.22 points higher at 19,046.54, with 16 of its components in the green.
The 50-share NSE index or Nifty closed 0.4 percent higher at 5,711.60 points. In the broader market, losers and gainers were almost equal in number on low volume of 277 million shares. Financials led the rise in anticipation of good quarterly profits. Higher loan demand and fee income are expected to have boosted earnings, analysts said.
The banking sector index closed up 1.7 percent after falling nearly 10 percent since the start of January. Citigroup analysts said in a note on Indian banks it was "almost time to get in". State Bank of India, the country's largest lender, rose 1 percent to 2,534.85 rupees. The bank is expected to report on Saturday quarterly profit rose 10 percent.
Sabharwal said he had a positive outlook on banking shares, after the recent correction. Export-driven Wipro rose 0.6 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings on Friday. The company is expected to report a 9.6 percent rise in profit. Bigger rivals Tata Consultancy and Infosys Technologies gained 1.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.