Indian shares close at over 9-month high on Reliance boost

BENGALURU: Indian shares closed at their highest level since mid-January on Friday, boosted by gains in Reliance Industries after the country's most valuable company secured more funding for its retail business.

The NSE Nifty 50 index finished 1.18% higher at 12,263.55 and the S&P BSE Sensex ended up 1.34% at 41,893. Both the indexes gained more than 5% this week, their best weekly performance since June.

Reliance shares jumped 3.8% on Friday after the company secured a $1.3-billion investment in its retail business from Saudi Arabia's wealth fund, taking the total amount raised for Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd to more than $3 billion.

The latest investment also came after Amazon.com Inc last month won an injunction from a Singapore arbitrator to halt the sale of some Future Group assets to Reliance.

"Retail is a big business opportunity and Reliance has been aggressive in this space," said Gaurav Garg, head of fundamental research at CapitalVia Global Research Ltd.

Reliance started the week lower following its earnings announcement last Friday, but later recovered to gain for three consecutive sessions.

Among other gainers on Friday, both the Nifty banking index and the financials index climbed about 1.85%.

Carmaker Maruti Suzuki was the biggest loser, falling about 2.7%.

Meanwhile, global stocks were little changed as Democrat Joe Biden was expected to beat President Donald Trump in the US election, while the Republicans were seen to retain control of the Senate.