IT powers Indian shares to first weekly gain in three as US recession fears wane

BENGALURU: Indian shares snapped a two-week losing streak on Friday led by information technology stocks, after firm U.S. economic data allayed fears of a recession in the world’s largest economy, boosting risk appetite globally.

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 1.65% higher at 24,541.15 and posted 0.7% weekly gain.

The S&P BSE Sensex added 1.68% to 80,436.84 and was 0.9% higher for the week.

The Nifty posted its best session since July 26, while Sensex logged biggest single-day gain in over two months.

“Valuation concerns and U.S. recession fears are not new to Indian markets, which are likely to demonstrate resilience on strong domestic inflows and easing U.S. growth worries,” said Santosh Pandey, president and head of Nuvama Professional Clients Group (PCG).

All the 13 major sectors logged gains on Friday, with the IT index advancing 2.89%.

Indian shares advance as US data quells recession fears

IT was the top weekly gainer among the sub-sectoral indexes, with Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro among the leading weekly gainers on the Nifty 50. Indian IT companies earn a significant share of their revenue from the United States.

Recent U.S. economic data, including a benign consumer price inflation reading on Wednesday, strong retail sales print and low weekly jobless claims on Thursday, have alleviated fears of a recession and reaffirmed bets for imminent interest rate cuts, but likely at a measured pace.

The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index climbed 1.8% on the day.

The broader small- and mid-caps rose about 2% each.

Among individual stocks, automaker Mahindra & Mahindra rose about 3.5% after launching a five-door variant of its ‘Thar’ model.

Aluminium maker Hindalco Industries gained 2% after Macquarie said it expects a negligible impact on the company from a Supreme Court judgement allowing states to levy past tax and royalty dues on mined minerals.

Newly-listed Ola Electric surged 20% after the company launched new motorcycle models. The stock jumped 75% over its issue price in just five sessions since its market debut.