BENGALURU: Indian shares advanced on Monday, led by heavyweight Reliance Industries, ahead of the corporate earnings for the June quarter.

The Nifty 50 index was up 0.42% at 19,413.70, while the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.42% to 65,557.56, as of 10:18 a.m. IST.

Seven of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains with oil and gas rising over 1%.

The rise in energy index was led by the oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries which climbed more than 4% after the company’s unit Reliance Retail approved a share capital reduction.

Indian shares close higher, shrugging off weakness in Asia, Europe

The retail arm is reported to have been valued at $92-$96 billion by two global consultants, in a move that could hint at an eventual public offer.

The company also set July 20 as the record date for the demerger of the financial services business into Reliance Strategic Investments. This demerger has “value-unlocking potential” for the company, per analysts.

Information technology (IT) index lost over 1%, capping the gains in benchmarks.

“IT firms are likely to post weak June quarter earnings while margins pressures will continue,” said Saptarishi Mukherjee, assistant vice president for research at BOB Capital Markets.

The brokerage cut ratings on HCLTech, Persistent Systems, Coforge and Affle India to “hold” from “buy” and flagged more earnings downgrades in the sector post the June quarter results due to a reduction in clients’ spending.

Tata Consultancy Services and HCLTech will report their June quarter numbers on July 12 while Wipro’s earnings are due on July 13.

HCLTech and Tata Consultancy Services were among the top Nifty 50 losers.

Asian markets were marginally higher on Monday, while Wall Street equities remained subdued on Friday, on persisting concerns about further rate hikes in the United States.

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