MUMBAI: Indian shares closed the special Diwali session little changed on Sunday, pausing a rally driven by a resurgence of foreign inflows, as limited exposure to AI insulated domestic stocks from the global technology selloff.
The benchmark Nifty 50 fell 0.18 percent to 24,986.4 and the Sensex lost 0.04 percent to 80,999.4, after the one-hour trading window.
The benchmarks had jumped more than 10 percent in the seven sessions up until Friday, as a sharp decline in oil prices after the US midterm election results boosted sentiment for stocks in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth 459.61 billion rupees (USD4.89 billion) over five sessions last week, including their biggest single-day buying session in India in about six years on Thursday.
“The recent decline in crude oil prices following the US midterm elections has eased concerns over inflation, India’s import bill and pressure on the rupee,” Ravi Singh, chief research officer at Master Capital Services, said.
Strong FII buying, supportive global cues and better-than-expected September-quarter earnings have reinforced the rally, he added.
Seven of the 16 major sectoral indexes advanced in the special trading session on Sunday. Small-caps and mid-caps rose 1 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
The pharma index gained 1.7 percent, led by a 7.5 percent jump in Divi’s Laboratories after it reported a 64 percent year-on-year increase in quarterly profit.
The metal index rose 0.4 percent, with Tata Steel advancing 2.1 percent after an 18 percent rise in operating profit and upbeat brokerage commentary on its India business.
Raamdeo Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the combination of relatively low valuations and strong earnings growth could position markets for “bumper returns” by next Diwali.
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