BENGALURU: Indian shares recovered from session lows to end Thursday higher, helped by energy and IT stocks, with a 6% rally in Reliance Industries leading the way.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index ended up 0.7% at 17,536.25, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.78% to 58,795.09.
"A lot of shopping has happened with Reliance stocks since the company announced a halt in its deal with Saudi Arabia's Aramco," said Rahul Shah, VP-Equity Advisory at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
He added the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's plan to transfer its gasification assets to a unit, its recent emphasis on clean energy businesses and a possible telecom tariff rate hike are helping investor sentiment.
Reliance shares rose as much as 6.22%, its best day in nearly six months, before ending up 6.02%. The stock boosted the Nifty Energy Index by 2.4%
IT stocks rose 0.96%. Coforge Ltd and MindTree Ltd rose 2.33% and 1.56%.
Indian shares end lower as IT, auto drag
Most sectoral indexes, except financial stocks, ended the session up.
Sentiment was also aided after ratings agency Moody's said India's progress on coronavirus vaccinations will support "sustained recovery in economic activity", and projected a GDP growth of 9.3% and 7.9% in fiscal 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Shares of consumer goods majors Hindustan Unilever and Colgate Palmolive India ended 1.08% and 0.96% lower, while peers ITC Ltd and Dabur India recovered from the day's losses.
The Nifty FMCG Index ended up 0.21%, after falling as much as 0.89%.
Motilal's Shah said inflation was a very real worry for consumer goods companies, many of which reported muted quarterly results and have spelt out how a price rise would impact them.
However, he added the broader picture for markets looked more promising in the near-term.
Globally, tech stocks in Asia rose - following overnight advances by U.S. tech companies - and pushed Asian shares higher on Thursday.
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