Banks steer Indian shares’ U-turn after pressure from dull earnings, foreign outflows

Indian shares ended higher on Tuesday, as gains in banking stocks helped the indexes reverse course in the final hour of trading after having spent the day under pressure due to some tepid earnings reports and persistent foreign selling.

The NSE Nifty 50 rose 0.52% to 24,466.85, while BSE Sensex gained 0.45% to 80,369.03. They had dropped about 0.7% each earlier before the U-turn sparked a second straight day of gains. They snapped a six-session losing streak on Monday.

“The drop earlier in the session after a rebound on Monday indicates that buyers and sellers remain indecisive about the short-term market trend,” said Akshay Chinchalkar, head of research at Axis Securities.

“Volatility is expected to rise in the next few sessions with all the upcoming event-related risks such as U.S. non-farm payrolls on Friday and U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 5.”

The Nifty 50 has dropped about 7% from a record high hit on Sept. 27, in part as foreign investors have pulled money from stocks for the past 21 sessions.

On the day, the more domestically-focused small- and mid-caps rose 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.

Indian shares open marginally lower as tepid earnings, persistent foreign outflows weigh

The heavyweight financials rose 2.1%, while banks also gained 2.1%.

ICICI Bank, the third-heaviest Nifty member, advanced 3%, leading the market for a second straight session after its quarterly profit beat estimates.

Federal Bank climbed 8.5% after posting a bigger quarterly profit. Indian Bank also posted a higher profit, leading the stock 5.4% higher, adding to its 10.6% jump in the previous session.

On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki slid 3.8% after posting its slowest quarterly revenue growth in nearly three years. That dragged auto stocks down 1.6%.

Bharti Airtel lost 1.6% after the telecom carrier reported a smaller-than-expected second-quarter profit.

State-owned refiner Indian Oil lost 2% after posting a smaller September-quarter profit.