Indian shares settle higher on pharma boost

BENGALURU: Indian shares ended higher on Monday, as a slew of upbeat pharma earnings reports and a rally in defence stocks helped investors momentarily shift focus from rising coronavirus cases.

In Mumbai trading, all 11 major sectoral indexes settled higher.

The Nifty Pharma index advanced the most, rising 6.13pc to a four-year high.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index, which climbed 1.1pc during the session, closed 0.5pc higher at 11,270.15, while the S&P BSE Sensex ended up 0.37pc at 38,182.08.

Robust quarterly results helped Divi's Laboratories Ltd and Cipla Ltd scale record highs, closing 12.06pc and 9.48pc higher, respectively.

Defence stocks rallied on Monday after the government said it would stop importing 101 items of military equipment in an effort to boost domestic defence production.

Shares of defence equipment manufacturers Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd closed up 9.12pc and 8.06pc, respectively.

On the Nifty 50, conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd and Eicher Motors Ltd were among the biggest drags.

Shares of Reliance Industries which has rallied 142pc since late March, settled 1.2pc lower after rising as much as 0.9pc earlier in the day. Eicher Motors closed down 2.2pc.

Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in the world's second-most populous country jumped to more than 2.2 million by Monday morning, including 44,386 deaths, health ministry data showed.