Indian shares end higher as Reliance, financials surge

BENGALURU: Indian shares ended over 1% higher on Thursday, boosted by a jump in financial stocks and heavyweight Reliance Industries, while news that a Brexit trade deal was imminent boosted investor sentiment.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 1.09% higher at 13,749.25 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.14% to 46,973.54, notching a third straight day of gains. Both indexes closed the truncated week flat.

Indian stock markets have climbed over 17% since the start of November, boosted by record inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and progress on COVID-19 vaccines.

Stocks have regained momentum after a torrid start to the week on expectations of wider vaccine availability and comments from the pharma industry on preparations to combat the new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in Britain.

"Markets seem to be continuing on their pre-existing trajectory, where everything goes up all the time," said Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of broker Zerodha and hedge fund True Beacon.

"Printing money in the West currently does not seem to be carrying the logical repercussions one would expect," he said, referring to investors' access to large amounts of liquidity, thanks to measures by various central banks.

Reliance Industries closed up 2.53%, but added only 0.13% for the week.

The Nifty's PSU Bank, banking, and financial indexes closed up between 0.61% and 1.81%.

The Nifty IT index closed down 0.66%, but clocked a 3.24% weekly gain.

Global stocks rallied on Thursday as Britain and the European Union closed in on a free-trade deal.

The Nifty Auto index closed up 0.47%, led by a 4% rise in Tata Motors after the carmaker said its Jaguar Land Rover unit had not seen any impact so far from issues at UK ports.

Biscuit maker Mrs Bectors Food Specialities' shares more than doubled in their market debut.